THE 


SERGEANT'S   MEMORIAL. 


BY 

HIS   FATHER. 


NEW  YORK : 

ANSON    D.    P.    RANDOLPH, 

No.  683  BROADWAY. 
1868. 


Entered,  according  to^cfof  CongrSse,  In  the  year  1868, 

By  ANSON  D.  F.  RANDOLPH, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States,  foi 
the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


EDWAJtD  0.  JENKINS, 

printer  anti  Stmotfipcr, 
No.  20  NOBTH  WILLIAM  ST. 


New  York,  April  15,  1863. 
Rev.  J.  P.  Thompson,  D.  D., 

Dear  Sir : — Fully  recognizing  the  paternal  privi 
lege  of  preserving  in  your  own  hearfs  sanctuary  the 
memory  of  a  cltild  whose  life  and  death  have  been 
alilce  happy  and  honorable,  and  appreciating  also 
your  natural  unwillingness  to  compile  for  publica 
tion  the  facts  and  circumstances  which  made  the  last 
months  of  your  son  SERGEANT  JOHN  H.  THOMPSON 
so  precious,  still,  permit  us,  on  behalf  of  the  young 
men  of  your  Church,  to  suggest  that  as  he  gave  him 
self  and  his  life  to  his  country,  his  countrymen,  his 
comrades,  young  men  all  through  the  land,  for  their 
own  profit  and  encouragement  in  this  darJc  hour  of 
their  country 's  history,  have  a  right  to  know  and 
perpetuate  those  principles  which  prompted  him  to 
go  forth  to  die,  "having  on  the  whole  armor" 

May  we  not  hope,  also,  that  incorporated  with  the 
above  there  may  be  the  record  of  some  of  those  patri- 

3 


4  CORRESPONDENCE. 

•« 

otic  thoughts  ichich  Ms  death  aroused  in  your  own 
heait  and  in  the  hearts  of  the  many  who  knew  him, 
and  who  mourn  with  you  the  loss  his  country  has 
sustained? 

Trusting  you  will  ~be  induced  to  accede  to  our 
request,  and  at  your  earliest  convenience  place  the 
manuscript  in  our  hands, 

We  remain, 

In  the  l)onds  of  Christian  sympathy, 
Yours  truly, 

HENRY  C.  HALL,  WM.  A.  JENNINGS, 

CHARLES  BELL,  A.  JENNINGS, 

W.  II.  BRIDGMAN,  R.  W.  HASKINS, 

CHARLES  T.  RODGERS.  CHARLES  L.  HALL, 

W.  H.  THOMSON,  TV.  D.  MOORE, 

HENRY  K.  WHITE,  WILLIAM  E.  GAVIT, 

F.  B.  LITTLLEJOHN,  JOSEPH  H.  WHITEHEAD, 

J.  A.  McGEE,  FRED.  M.  ROBINSON, 

GEO.  G.  HALL,  AUSTIN  ABBOTT, 

E.  N.  RANNY,  CHAS.  S.  SMITH, 

AMBROSE  LEONARD,  L.  M.  BATES. 


32  West  Thirty-Sixth  Street,  May  22,  1863. 

Hy  Dear  Friends : — In  consequence  of  my  ab 
sence  from  the  city,  your  kind  letter  of  the  15th.  ult. 
has  l)ut  just  now  come  into  my  hands.  It  meets  me 
upon  my  return  from  a  visit  to  m,y  soris  regiment, 
where  I  found  his  memory  as  fresh  and  tender  as  on 
the  day  when  his  comrades  delivered  to  me  his  dear 
remains. 

"  He  did  not  aspire  to  distinction"  said  an  officer  ; 
"  Tie  was  only  anxious  to  serve  his  country.  He  icas 
too  modest  for  a  soldier,  too  modest  for  anything  in 
this  world.'1'1  How,  then,  can  I  accede  to  your  request, 
and  unveil  that  gentle,  retiring  life  f 

" Every  one  of  w"  said  a  tent-mate,  " has  some 
little  memento  of  the  Sergeant ; — we  thought  so  much 
of  liim;  and  if  you  could  send  us  his  picture,  or 
some  sketch  of  his  life,  we  should  prize  it  so  much!" 
And  ichen  I  find  this  spontaneous  request  of  Ids  com- 
rades  in  arms  seconded  ~by  the  spontaneous  request  tf 

(5) 


6  CORRESPONDENCE, 

my  own  "  Young  Men's  Bible  Class,"  many  of  id  LOTH 
knew  him  as  a  brother  in  Christ,  how  can  I  with- 
hold  from  his  country  the  memory  of  one  who,  while  • 
he  sought  nothing  for  himself,  gave  all  he  had  to  her 
cause  ? 

And  so,  at  once  doubting  and  trusting,  I  place 
these  fragmentary  thoughts  and  memoirs  at  your 
disposal.  Your  grateful  Pastor, 

JOSEPH  P.  THOMPSON. 

ilessrs.  HENRY  0.  HALL, 

CHARLES  BELL,  and  others. 


THE 


SERGEANT'S   MEMORIAL. 


I. 


*  *  *  *  ]  fc  was  Sabbath  evening.  I 
had  preached  to  young  men  upon  purity  of 
life  and  a  true  faith  in  Christ  as  the  high 
est  manliness  and  the  best  qualification  for 
serving  their  country  and  mankind.  As  I 
left  the  church,  a  friend  inquired  of  'the 
army  boy ;'  and  this  had  led  to  pleasant  talk 
of  one  who  early  learned  to  follow  whatever 
was  pure  and  lovely  and  of  good  report. 
Just  at  the  time  of  rest  came  a  violent  ring, 
and  a  telegram.  My  heart  read  it  before  it 
was  opened  ;  but  those  few  hurried  words — 
"  Your  son  is  dangerously  ill — come  at  once," 
— awoke  every  energy  of  fear,  hope,  love. 
In  an  instant  I  had  started,  only  to  learn 
that  no  train  would  leave  till  morning.  He 
there,  in  Virginia,  in  tent  or  cabin,  sick, 

(9) 


1 0  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

weary,  dying,  and  I  not  able  to  move  to 
ward  him  for  hours,  when  every  moment  was 
an  hour,  and  every  hour  a  day,  and  a  day 
was  a  life.  Hemmed  in  by  the  impossible! 
Nay — shut  up  to  Him  who,  like  a  Father, 
pitieth  his  children. 

My  heart  told  me  he  was  already  dead. 
Why  then  should  I  be  so  impatient  to  reach 
him  ?  Did  not  my  heart  bury  him  when  it 
said  Go?  Yet  by  the  first  and  fastest  train 
I  was  on  my  way — whither  ? — to  what  ? 

Again  detained  in  Baltimore,  my  heart 
now  said,  "  he  is  not  dead — I  will  procure  a 
furlough  ;  or  if  not  this,  will  convey  him  to 
the  best  hospital ;  or  if  not  this,  will  watch 
by  his  side  ;  I  will  take  with  me  provision 
for  every  comfort,  against  any  emergency ; 
I  will  send  for  the  home  physician ;  the 
freest  and  the  best  must  be  for  the  boy 
who  has  given  everything  for  me,  for  his 
country  ;" — the  click  of  the  telegraph  in  the 
hotel  office  said,  "  Your  son  died  this  morn 
ing."  Died  this  morning  ?  Yet  though  all 
is  over,  I  cannot  wait  for  the  train  to-mor- 


TK&  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  1 1 

row :  the  express  to-night  will,  must  stop, 
and  leave  me  by  the  road-side  near  his  camp. 

As  I  enter  the  train,  the  sentinel  with 
loaded  musket  and  fixed  bayonet,  challenges 
me  for  the  inspection  of  pass  and  baggage. 
The  car  is  filled  with  soldiers.  As  we  move 
on,  there  are  guards  at  every  bridge,  at 
every  station  ;  I  am  within  the  seat  of  war. 
It  is  far  past  midnight  when  we  reach  Har 
per's  Ferry  ;  through  the  gloom  I  look  un 
consciously  for  his  camp  as  it  was  last  sum 
mer,  and  for  the  greeting  of  surprise  he  gave 
me  then.  We  are  at  Martinsburg  ;  it  is  but 
ten  days  since  he  left  here?  and  his  last  letter 
described  the  heavy,  weary  march,  through 
mud  and  snow.  Those  picket  fires  under 
the  open  sky — how  many  nights  has  he 
paced  thus,  watching  through  storm  and 
cold! 

The  train  slackens ;  it  is  for  me ;  I  barely 
jump  to  the  ground,  when  the  living  rush 
on  their  course,  leaving  me  to  seek  the 
dead  ; — alone,  in  the  dark,  where  the  sentry 
is  pacing  to  challenge  me,  where  all  is 


1 2  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

strange,  and  gloomy,  and  desolate.  No — 
not  all  strange ;  some  one  speaks  my  own 
name  ;  "  I  am  Captain  Paine  ;"  a  friendly 
arm  leads  me  to  the  house  ;  a  friendly  yoice, 
not  without  emotion,  tells  me  of  the  last 
scene.  I  go  up  into  the  little  chamber 
where  two  soldiers  are  watching  their  dead. 
Tenderly  and  reverently  they  uncover  the 
face  : — IT  is  MY  FIRST  BORN  ! 


II. 


TIE  was  my  first  born.  Twenty  years  ago 
-*--*•  he  came  to  bless  my  early  manhood  in 
the  spring-time  of  my  ministry ;  to  open 
within  me  a  strange  new  life  that  seemed 
another  self,  that  was  to  be  my  imitative 
self,  my  counterpart  self,  and  by-and-by  my 
posthumous  self.  What  hope  enters  into  a 
man,  what  love  goes  out  from  him,  when  he 
thus  begins  to  live  in  his  first-born  son! 
Heir  to  no  affluence,  family,  fame,  he  was 
heir  to  Liberty  through  the  blood  of  Puri 
tan  and  Covenanter  mingling  with  the  mar 
tyr-blood  of  the  Revolution,  and  heir  through 
many  generations  to  the  covenanted  grace 
of  God.* 

*  John  Hanson  Thompson  was  born  at  New  Haven,  Conn., 
September  3,  1842.    His  earliest  ancestor  in  this  country  was 


1 4  TEE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

At  the  time  of  his  baptism,  one  of  the 
first  theologians  of  the  land  was  nry  guest. 
I  asked  him — "if  his  parents  are  sincere 
and  faithful,  if  faith  is  strong  and  teaching 

John  Thompson,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Stratford,  Conn.,  who 
came  over  from  London  in  1635.  A  well-preserved  family  tradi 
tion  relates  that  he  came  out  at  first  to  see  the  country,  and  soon 
returned  to  England  to  make  arrangements  for  a  permanent  re 
moval.  To  reach  his  home,  he  had  to  diverge  from  the  main  road 
and  to  go  some  miles  afoot.  A  farmer  upon  the  route,  learning 
that  he  was  from  America,  detained  him  to  take  a  meal  and  to  give 
the  news.  Thompson  described  the  new  country  as  full  of  sav 
age  beasts  and  savage  men ;  but  added,  with  a  tone  of  exultation, 
that  he  should  go  back,  notwithstanding,  for  there  one  could  wor 
ship  God  according  to  his  conscience.  "Is  that  indeed  so?  "Would 
that  I  were  there,"  exclaimed  Mirdble,  one  of  three  buxom 
daughters  at  the  table.  "But,  could  you,"  asked  Thompson, 
"  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  endure  the  trials  and  perils  of  that  wild 
and  far-off  country?"  "Yes,  gladly,  by  God's  help,"  answered 
Mirable.  This  young  Puritan  maiden  had  not  long  before  been 
publicly  exposed  in  the  pillory  for  attending  a  Separatist  conven 
ticle.  When  John  Thompson  returned  to  New  England,  Mirable 
came  also,  as  his  wife ;  of  whom  was  Ambrose  (1652),  of  whom 
was  John  (1680),  of  whom  was  John  (1717),  of  whom  was  William 
(1742),  of  whom  was  Joseph  (1769),  of  whom  was  Isaac,  yet  liv 
ing,  of  whom  was  Joseph  Parrish,  of  whom  was  John  Hanson. 
This  Hanson  represents  a  family  of  Covenanters,  my  maternal 
ancestors,  driven  from  Scotland  to  the  North  of  Ireland  by  the 
storm  of  persecution. 

William  Thompson,  above  (born  1742),  was  a  Lieutenant  under 
General  Wooster's  command,  and  fell  at  Eidgefield,  Conn.,  April 
27, 1777,  "bravely  fighting  for  the  liberties  of  his  country."  He 
was  buried  at  Stratford,  and  his  tombstone  records  that  "  he  lived 
greatly  beloved,  and  died  universally  lamented." 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  1 5 

true,  is  there  any  reason  why  this  child 
should  not,  from  his  first  moral  conscious 
ness,  be  God's  willing  holy  child  ?"  I  re 
ceived  no  light  then ;  though  my  friend 
thinks  he  has  found  it  in  the  theory  of  a  pre- 
existent  state  of  probation  and  fall.  This  I 
know,  and  this  the  boy  came  to  know  and 
acknowledge  —  that  he  did  not  grow  up 
without  sin,  and  that  the  way  into  the  king 
dom  was  through  renewal  and  sanctifying 
grace.  Yet  this  also  I  know,  and  will  tes 
tify,  that  from  infancy  he  was  so  gentle  and 
pure,  so  conscientious  and  sincere,  so  lov 
ing  and  true,  that  he  gave  large  hope  of 
early  piety  to  those  who  watched  his  train 
ing  ;  and  these  qualities,  like  his  very  fea 
tures,  grew  only  the  more  marked  in  the 
same  mould,  as  he  grew  in  years.  It  was  a 
household  saying,  that  "  Johnny  was  never 
known  to  deceive ;"  and  no  member  of  the 
family  can  recall  any  unpleasant  passage  or 
incident  in  his  home-life.  Very  precious  is 
the  memory  of  that  life ; — too  precious  to  be 
here  unveiled. 


III. 

C  OME  rongli  winds  blew  upon  that  young 
~  life,  some  dark  clouds  gathered  about  it, 
and  clinging  to  his  father  with  the  strength 
and  the  gentleness  of  an  unquestioning 
faith,  the  boy  of  nine  crossed  the  sea  to  find 
new  homes  in  England,  France,  Italy.  The 
pet  of  the  sailors — climbing  fearlessly  into 
the  topmast,  and  running  over  the  rigging 
like  a  squirrel, — the  pet  of  the  cabin — 
making  his  merry  laugh  chase  away  the  in 
ertia  of  sea-life ;  now  pacing  the  quarter 
deck  in  the  captain's  watch,  now  sighting  the 
compass  for  the  man  at  the  wheel,  now  with 
Jack  in  the  forecastle,  now  trolling  his  lino 
astern,  now  on  the  lookout  for  whales  or  ice- 
bergs,— how  the  child  baffled  the  sea,  and 

(16) 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  1 7 

made  even  sickness  and  fears  brighten  into 
health  and  hope !  Then  it  was  that  his  soul 
became  a  part  of  mine. 

"  What  a  little  gentleman  he  was,"  say 
the  good  American  friends  who  gave  him  his 
first  home  in  England ;  "  so  kind,  so  polite, 
so  tidy,  so  merry,  so  obliging.  How  we  all 
loved  him !"  And  a  dear  English  lady,  who 
welcomed  him  almost  with  a  love  of  adop 
tion,  and  who  has  since  tasted  the  bitterness 
of  parting  with  her  first  born,  writes,  "I 
look  back  at  his  face  as  I  knew  it,  almost 
too  sweet  and  patient-looking  for  a  child, 
and  then  at  the  picture  of  him  in  his  regi 
mental  great-coat,  with  his  sword  by  his 
side,  and  realize  with  tears  and  sorrow  all 
you  have  lost !  Rather  one  should  say,  lost 
sight  of,  for  it  is  not  lost,  but  gone  before."* 

For  months  in  Paris,  in  the  family  of  my 
dear  friend,  Rev.  Leon  Pilatte,t  forgetting 
his  English  with  Mademoiselle,  learning  the 

*  Mrs.  Joseph  Warne,  of  Oxford. 

t  Mr.  Pilatte  is  now  paster  of  a  Waldensian  church  at  Nice, 
France. 

2* 


1 8  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

games  of  French  children  in  the  Luxem 
bourg,  and  the  wonders  of  nature  in  the  Jar- 
din  des  Plantes  ;  then  for  other  months  at 
Men  tone,  in  Italy,  learning  to  swim,  in  the 
Mediterranean,  and  to  climb  upon  the  mari 
time  Alps  ;  counting  bread  and  olives  better 
than  the  richest  dairies  of  America,  and  the 
costume  of  the  simple  villagers  better  than 
the  pageantry  of  Hyde  Park ;  how  many 
lessons  of  man,  of  society,  of  life,  did  his 
young  heart  receive  for  future  moulding,  all 
under  the  guiding  hand  of  that  religious 
household  in  which  the  piety  of  Prance  and 
of  America  were  so  happily  blended.  Por 
nearly  a  year  he  knew  no  other  home. 

"  He  was  a  boy,"  writes  Mrs.  P.,  "  I  would 
have  given  as  a  model  to  my  own  children  ; 
and  how  often  have  I  regretted  that  my 
own  little  boys  have  not  known  him,  es 
pecially  now  that  my  eldest  (ten,  last  De 
cember),  just  the  age  he  was  when  with  us, 
so  often  makes  me  think  of  him.  Dear 
Johnny's  picture  of  Mentone  is  very  truth 
ful.  *  Those  were  happy  days  I  spent  there  f 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  1 9 

he  says,  and  we  say  so  too,  adding  that  he 
himself  stands  out  in  bright  colors  among 
our  reminiscences  of  Men  tone,  with  his 
bright  eyes  and  beaming  face — a  face  I  can 
not  well  forget. 

"  I  think  John  was  an  extraordinary  child. 
He  possessed  those  qualities  which  in  child 
hood  or  manhood  are  rightly  called  noble  ; 
such  as  unselfishness,  courageousness,  defer 
ence  to  the  opinions  of  others  in  spite  of  an 
independent  and  reflecting  mind  ;  and  he 
seemed  to  try  to  cultivate  these  qualities 
conscientiously. 

"  He  was  very  forward  to  oblige,  and  it 
seems  to  me  I  can  almost  hear  now,  his  glad 
'  may  I,  may  I/  so  frequently  heard,  when 
any  little  service  was  called  for.  During 
our  journey  from  Paris  to  Mentone,  this  was 
particularly  observable.  As  children  gener 
ally  are,  he  was  in  great  glee  about  the 
journey  we  were  going  to  make,  and  talked 
much  of  all  he  would  do  and  undertake  ; 
and  if  any  difficulty  arose,  seemed  to  think 
he  could  remove  it  at  once,  by  all  he  would 


20  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

take  upon  himself.  In  addition  to  a  knap 
sack  which  he  had  begged  to  consider  as  his 
own  property,  he  would  have  loaded  himself 
with  the  bags  and  cushions  of  the  whole 
party. 

"He  was  a  conscientious  boy.  There 
was  no  disregard  of  obligation,  or  careless 
ness  about  duty  in  him,  that  I  ever  per 
ceived.  He  did  his  duty  without  troubling 
others  to  look  after  him  to  see  that  he  did 
it.  He  applied  himself  diligently  to  the 
study  of  the  French  language,  and  boldly 
essayed  the  conversational  department,  in 
which  he  made  rapid  progress.  I  remember 
his  asking  me  once,  what  day  of  the  month 
it  was,  in  a  phrase  which  was  quite  new  to 
me ;  and  I  can  see  his  bright  face  with  a 
suppressed  smile  upon  it,  peering  over  the 
balustrade,  as  he  was  going  up  stairs,  as  he 
said — *  quel  quantieme  est-ce  ?' 

"  There  is  another  incident  that  we  recall, 
which  showed  his  courageous  resolution 
Mr.  Pilatte  had  arrived  late  from  a  journey, 
and  being  hungry,  we  soon  spread  a  supper- 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  21 

table  for  him  ;  but  there  was  no  water,  and 
our  fountain,  the  nearest  place  where  we 
could  obtain  fresh  water,  was  at  a  good  and 
lonely  distance  from  the  house.  I  suppose 
the  servant  must  have  gone  to  town  for  the 
night,  as  she  did  sometimes,  for  I  remember 
that  the  cry  was  raised — l  who  will  go  and 
fetch  some  water  V  A  silence  ensued,  while 
each  one  recollected  that  there  was  no  water 
in  the  house,  and  that  to  have  any,  some  one 
must  go  a  good  way  in  the  dark.  Johnny 
was  the  first  one  to  break  the  pause.  '  Til 
go/  said  he,  and  seizing  the  pitcher,  he  soon 
brought  it  back  full,  and  he  himself  full  of 
pleasure  with  the  little  sacrifice  it  had  cost 
him  to  slake  the  thirst  of  our  weary  traveler. 
"  I  do  not  recollect  but  one  instance  of 
his  having  required  reproof  at  our  hands. 
It  was  for  having  beaten  the  dog.  That 
love  of  power  inherent  in  man,  and  almost 
always  manifested  at  an  early  age,  thus 
showed  it^plf  in  him  toward  poor  doggy, 
who  was  thrashed  for  nothing  at  all ;  but  we 
never  had  occasion  to  repeat  the  reproof/7 


22  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

Either  "  doggy  "  deserved  the  thrashing, 
or  this  act  of  injustice  was  expiated  in  after 
years  by  the  fond  and  ready  patronage  of 
the  whole  species.  Even  in  his  tent-photo 
graph  the  little  pet  dog  appears  nestling  in 
his  blanket  and  sharing  his  rations. 

With  this  affection  for  animals  I  recall 
the  general  artlessness  of  his  tastes.  The 
boy  had  seen  the  treasures  of  London  and 
Paris,  had  witnessed  the  pomp  of  the  burial 
of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  of  the  pro 
clamation  of  Louis  Napoleon  as  Emperor ; 
had  heard  of  the  marvels  of  Rome,  Naples, 
and  Constantinople  ; — but  when  on  leaving 
him  in  Paris,  I  asked  what  present  I  should 
bring  him  from  the  East,  he  gave  me  this 
little  slip  of  paper  that  now  lies  before  me 
—  folded,  sealed,  and  inscribed,  "  To  be 
opened  when  you  come  in  sight  of  Mt. 
Sinai." 

Paris,  Dec.  6£A,  1852. 
DEAR  FATHER  : — I  suppose  that  you  are 
now  in  sight  of  Mt.  Sinai,  and  you  know 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  2 3 

that  you  promised  me  you  would  get  me 
some  sand  for  an  hour-glass  when  you  were 
in  the  desert ;  but  I  would  rather  have  it 
from  Mt.  Sinai,  if  you  can  get  it  there  ;  but 
don't  get  more  than  a  bushel.  I  told  you 
that  I  would  give  you  a  letter  of  introduc 
tion  [to  Mt.  Sinai],  and  is  not  this  one  ? 
Your  son,  JOHNNY. 

I  fulfilled  the  commission.  He  had  the 
wished-for  hour-glass.  It  lies  beside  me 
now — broken  in  the  middle,  its  sands  pre 
maturely  run  out. 


IV. 

fTHE  boy  loved  flowers ;  not  with  a  mere 
L  childish  wonder  and  delight  in  their 
growth  and  their  blooming,  but  with  an  in 
telligent,  care-taking  interest  in  their  struc 
ture  and  their  properties,  their  names,  beau 
ties  and  varieties.  Symptoms  of  ill-health, 
that  threatened  to  become  chronic, — tho 
residuum  of  scarlet  fever  and  measles — de 
manded  a  thorough  change  of  regimen  ;  and 
an  agricultural  school  in  Cornwall,  Conn., 
afforded  the  desired  opportunity  for  the  cul 
tivation  of  rural  tastes,  with  a  regular  but 
moderated  intellectual  training. 

Boating  and  swimming  in  summer,  coast 
ing  and  skating  in  winter,  log-splitting,  spad 
ing,  plowing,  all  that  pertains  to  garden  and 

(24) 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  2 5 

farm  work  and  to  the  athletic  sports  of  the 
country,  tended  to  give  robustness  to  his 
constitution,  and  finally  conquered  the  in 
firmity  that  threatened  to  be  the  bane  of 
his  life.  At  thirteen  he  has  his  garden 
patch  of  melons,  corn,  tomatoes,  etc.,  com 
peting  for  the  school  premium  with  all  the 
zest  of  a  member  of  the  American  Institute. 
But  in  the  cultivation  of  flowers  he  exhibits 
a  taste  that  grows  into  affection. 

"  Did  you  get  the  copy  of  the  Homestead 
that  I  sent  you,  with  my  composition  about 
flowers  ?  Please  keep  it  for  me,  as  it  is  the 
first  thing  I  ever  wrote  that  was  printed. 
Have  you  read  a  book  called  'Hiawatha/ 
by  Longfellow  ?"  The  printed  composition, 
were  it  at  hand,  might  have  an  interest  now 
that  did  not  attach  to  it  at  the  time ;  but 
the  taste  that  it  indicated  matured  with 
years,  diffused  its  delicate  fragrance  through 
out  the  house,  gave  zest  to  many  a  ramble 
through  the  woods,  and  even  relieved  the 
roughness  of  camp-life  by  levying  upon 
nature  for  such  leafy  and  floral  contribu- 
3 


26  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

tions  as  could  be  found,  to  ornament  the 
tent.  Not  a  book  or  a  paper  in  his  tiny 
knapsack  library  but  contains  some  remnant 
of  gathered  flowers.  He  had  learned  to 
name  and  to  classify  all  trees  of  the  wood 
and  flowers  of  the  field,  all  grains  and 
grasses  and  growths,  long  "before  most  city 
lads  can  distinguish  the  contents  of  a  grass- 
plot  border. 

As  he  himself  delighted  to  watch  some 
choice  flower,  to  analyze  its  parts,  and  to 
preserve  its  outline  and  impression  when  its 
substance  had  faded,  so  it  is  a  joy  to  go 
back  in  thought  and  watch  the  unfolding  of 
traits  that  grew  to  be  fragrant  and  precious 
virtues,  and  the  first  outlines  of  which  are 
preserved  in  these  boyish  letters  ;  to  note 
his  careful  precision  about  matters  of  fact — 
as  when  his  brother  is  written  to,  post  haste, 
to  examine  "  whether  the  New  Haven  cars 
have  tongues  on  them,  when  drawn  by 
horses,"  and  is  charged  "  to  be  sure  that  he 
understands  it,  as  it  is  a  case  of  great  im 
portance  ;"  to  note  his  punctuality  in  writ- 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  27 

ing  home,  and  his  care  in  sending  particular 
messages  to  every  member  of  the  family  ;  to 
note  his  appreciation  of  brave  and  manly 
qualities,  as  when  he  pours  out  his  boyish 
enthusiasm  for  Dr.  Kane,  after  reading  both 
his  expeditions,  and  laments  that  he  could 
not  have  seen  him  before  his  death  ;  to  note 
the  kindling  of  noble  impulses  for  liberty, 
as  when  he  stands  up  alone  in  the  school  for 
Fremont  as  the  freemen's  candidate,  and  de 
nounces  the  outrage  upon  Senator  Sumner, 
in  an  "  exhibition  "  speech  ;  to  note  his  care 
of  his  clothing,  and  his  economy  in  his  little 
possessions,  as  when  he  puts  his  new  knife 
away,  because  he  has  not  yet  lost  or  used  up 
the  one  sent  him  in  the  first  part  of  the 
term ;  to  note  his  detestation  of  vice  and 
crime,  as  when  he  recounts  the  profaneness 
and  the  deceptions  of  schoolmates,  or  writes 
an  indignant  comment  upon  "  the  awful 
wickedness  of  New  York,"  as  reported  in 
the  newspapers  ;  to  note  his  considerateness 
with  regard  to  his  parents7  wishes,  in  every 
wish  or  plan  of  his  own,  and  his  loving  defer- 


28  TEE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

ence  of  address  ;  to  note  his  grateful  appre 
ciation  of  his  school-boy  privileges  :  "  I  keep 
up  rny  French,  and  will  try  and  get  my  Latin 
as  well  as  I  can.  The  more  I  study  it,  the 
more  I  like  it ;  but  still  I  do  not  see  what 

good  it  will  do   me I  am  glad  you 

think  I  am  improving  in  my  studies,  because 
I  try  all  I  can  to  learn,  while  I  have  so  good 
an  opportunity  ;" — to  note,  especially,  the 
flower  of  love  that  so  beautifully  unfolds 
itself  in  this  greeting  to  the  newly-born : 
"As  to  home,  although  I  am  away  from 
home,  I  have  not  forgotten  what  it  is  to  have 
one.  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  that  I  have 
got  a  little  baby  brother,  and  he  shall  never 
repent  that  I  am  his  brother,  nor  say  that  I 
ever  treated  him  unkindly,  if  I  can  help  it ; 
and  there  is  nothing  I  should  like  better 
than  to  be  able  to  do  something  for  him 
sometime." 


V. 


"DEAUTIPUL  was  the  love  that  bound 
•**  together  the  eldest  and  the  youngest  of 
the  household,  for  the  six  years  from  that 
day  of  greeting  to  the  day  of  parting.  The 
school-boy  found  no  more  delightful  pastime 
in  vacation  than  to  entertain  for  hours  "  the 
baby  brother" — teaching  him  all  childish 
games  and  sports,  and,  as  his  mind  opened, 
all  pleasant  things  about  flowers,  birds  and 
animals,  such  as  children  love  to  hear.  In 
the  summer  recess,  it  was  a  day's  delight  for 
John  to  take  Willie  on  a  ramble  through 
the  woods  for  wild-flowers,  or  hunting  squir 
rels,  or  to  build  chip  boats  for  the  perilous 
navigation  of  the  brook.  No  higher  society 
seemed  so  kindred  to  his  gentle,  loving  na- 
3*  (29) 


30  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMGEIAL. 

ture  as  this  little  confiding  brother,  who 
would  go  with  him  anywhere,  everywhere, 
and  live  in  his  own  light. 

Fragments  of  toys  that  had  baffled  pa 
rental  patience  and  ingenuity,  would  be 
gravely  laid  aside  till  Johnny  should  come 
home,  with  the  most  implicit  confidence  that 
his  skill  would  restore  them.  And  so  it 
did.  Nothing  in  the  line  of  such  inventions 
ever  surpassed  his  powers  of  contrivance, 
and  not  the  most  hopeless  breakage  could 
discourage  his  patience.  In  the  soul-union 
of  these  two,  Faith  walked  unquestioning 
and  satisfied  by  the  side  of  Love. 

When  the  school-boy  had  entered  college, 
and  began  to  know  the  fellowships  of  ma- 
turer  life  and  the  aspirations  of  manly  pride, 
there  was  "  still  nothing  he  liked  better  than 
to  be  able  to  do  something  for  the  baby- 
brother  at  home  ;" — to  send  him  a  flower,  to 
paint  him  a  picture,  to  make  some  new  con 
trivance  for  his  amusement  when  away  ; — 
and  at  home  to  take  him  to  museums,  parks 
and  fountains.  And  when  the  college  youth 


THE  SEE  GE ANT'S  MEMORIAL.  3 1 

became  a  soldier,  hef would  sit  down  after 
guard  or  picket  duty,  and  print  in  large  let 
ters  for  childish  eyes,  some  little  adventure 
with  explanatory  sketches. 

What  love  could  be  sweeter,  purer  than 
this  of  a  young  man,  a  college  student,  an 
army  officer,  for  a  little  child  ?  When  the 
child  looked  upon  his  elder  brother  in  the 
last  sleep,  with  a  strange  awe  of  the  mystery 
of  death,  his  young  heart  told  how  faithfully 
Johnny  had  fulfilled  the  promise  of  the  first 
greeting.  When  a  few  days  after,  John's 
captain,  on  furlough,  called  at  the  door,  his 
first  exclamation  was,  "  Ah !  this  is  Johnny's 
little  brother  that  he  always  talked  of; 
every  body  in  camp  knows  Willie.;? 


VI. 

A  HE AET  so  gentle  and  so  loving,  so  pure 
•**•  and  simple  in  its  tastes,  so  noble  in  its  as 
pirations,  needed  the  Highest  and  the  Best  to 
satisfy  its  longings  ; — needed  that  fellowship 
with  the  pure,  the  good,  the  true,  which  is 
found  only  in  God  manifest  in  the  flesh. 
The  more  pure  and  lovely  the  character  that 
engages  our  affections,  the  less  can  those 
affections  satisfy  the  soul  they  would  en 
circle  as  its  home.  The  more  one  rises 
above  the  common  level  of  character,  the 
more  does  he  need  "  to  know  HIM  that  is 
true,  and  to  be  in  Him  that  is  true,  even  in 
his  Son  Jesus  Christ."  Were  one  sinless, 
but  mortal,  he  would  yet  have  need  of 
Christ ;  —  Christ's  spiritual  illumination, 

(32) 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  33 

Christ's  gentle  sympathy,  Christ's  guiding 
wisdom,  Christ's  sustaining  love.  Much 
more  is  Christ's  redeeming,  renewing,  sanc 
tifying  grace  a  necessity  for  those  who  are 
sinful  as  well  as  mortal. 

A  judgment  more  delicate  and  penetrating 
than  mine,  an  eye  more  constant  and  watch 
ful  than  mine,  a  love  more  sympathetic  than 
mine  with  childish  experiences,  and  more 
sensitive  than  mine  to  manifestations  of 
Christ,  had  ventured  to  pronounce  this  child- 
a  child  of  God  in  his  ninth  year,  when  an 
angel-brother  opened  the  gates  of  heaven  to 
his  wondering  eyes.  Theories  of  a  metaphys 
ical  conversion  held  my  eyes  doubting  !  But 
the  day  of  manifestation  came. 

"  Dear  Mother,"  he  writes,  "  I  shall  be  so 
glad  to  get  home  once  more  ;  at  least  five 
years  of  my  fourteen  have  been  spent  away 
from  home  !  But  it  must  be  just  as  you  and 
father  think ;  you  know  best.  Everybody 
here  is  very  kind  to  me,  yet  I  am  real  home 
sick  ;  I  mean  it ;  I  never  was  so  before  ;  I 
am  so  lonely  ;  nobody  to  talk  to  that  I  can 


34  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

tell  everything  I  want  to  ;  it  is  hard  for  me 
to  study  ;  hard  to  seem  cheerful." 

With  a  view  to  a  more  systematic  prepara 
tion  for  college,  he  had  been  transferred 
from  his  farm-school  to  a  grammar-school  at 
Cambridgeport,  Mass.,  and  he  missed  of 
course  the  out-door  life  and  the  hearty 
recreations  of  his  loved  "  Cream  Hill."  But 
his  mind  was  also  thrown  back  upon  itself ; 
and  he  found  and  felt  that  "  aching  void " 
which  is  often  the  first  consciousness  of 
higher  spiritual  needs. 

"  I  know,  dear  father  "  he  writes  at  fifteen, 
"that  the  culture  of  the  heart  is  of  very 
great  importance,  and  I  often  think  that  I 
should  become  a  Christian  without  any  more 
delay.  I  try  to  do  what  is  right,  and  I  pray 
to  God  to  help  me,  to  give  me  a  new  heart, 
and  to  teach  me  how  to  love  and  serve  Him. 
I  think  of  these  things  more  sometimes  than 
at  others. 

"  I  was  invited  to  attend  the  young  men's 
prayer  meeting  a  few  weeks  ago.  I  have 
been  twice,  and  I  like  to  go  very  much. 


TEE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  35 

I  hope  it  will  do  me  good.  I  think  I  know 
what  your  wishes  are  on  this  subject, 
and  I  will  try  to  follow  them  as  well  as  I 

can.  I  showed  your  letter  to  uncle  E , 

and  he  talked  to  me  about  it  very  kindly." 
He  is  approaching  the  moment  of  transition 
into  the  true  life  of  the  soul ; — the  seeds  of 
holy  faith  and  love  long  germinating  in  his 
heart  are  about  to  flower. 

His  letters  now  are  filled  with  reports  of 
Bible-class  lessons,  of  sermons  and  religious 
themes  that  had  awakened  his  attention, 
and  that  indicate  the  working  of  his  mind. 
But  religious  thought  and  prayers,  and  "  try 
ing  to  do  right,"  are  not  enough  to  bring 
the  sense  of  peace  with  God.  To  a  soul 
made  conscious  of  its  sins  and  its  needs, 
peace  and  joy  can  come  but  through  one 
medium ;  and  in  that  blessed  spring-time 
they  so  came  to  him. 

"  My  dear  father  and  mother,  rejoice  with 
me,  for  I  hope  and  trust  that  last  night  I 
gave  my  heart  to  Jesus.  Oh,  how  much  bet 
ter  I  feel !  Uncle  E.  told  me  that  no  one 


36  TEE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

could  do  it  for  me  ;  so,  before  I  went  to  bed, 
I  trust  I  gave  my  heart  to  Jesus. 

"  I  must  go  to  Boston,  to-morrow,  to  give 
my  testimony  in  this  cause.  Oh,  pray  for  me 
that  I  may  keep  on." 

The  date  of  this  letter  (March,  1858)  refers 
it  to  a  season  of  unusual  religious  sympathy 
in  Boston,  of  which  Park  Street  Church  was 
for  a  time  the  centre  ;  and  the  allusion  to 
"  bearing  testimony  in  Boston  "  is  explained, 
a  few  days  later,  in  a  more  particular  ac 
count  of  his  decision  to  serve  Christ. 

"I  do  wonder  that  I  have  not  done  this 
before,  because  it  was  so  easy  when  I  once 
determined  to  do  it.  In  the  vestry  of  Park 
Street  Church  I  first  promised  to  seek  the 
Lord  ;  promised  a  stranger.  I  do  not  won 
der  that  I  have  not  done  this  before,  because 
my  heart  was  so  wicked.77  Thus  the  con 
trariety  and  the  conflict  of  experiences  de 
scribed  by  Paul  in  the  seventh  chapter  of 
his  epistle  to  the  Romans,  the  good  and  the 
evil,  the  ready-willing  and  the  not-doing? 
reproduce  themselves  in  this  child-heart, 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  3  7 

until  the  favoring  moment  of  decision  comes, 
and  Christ,  received  in  his  all-sufficient 
strength  and  grace,  animates  the  soul  both 
to  will  and  to  do.  To  come  to  Christ  is  so 
easy,  when  the  heart  is  determined  upon  it,' 
that  the  wonder  always  is  that  it  was  not 
done  before  ;  yet  the  heart  is  so  full  of  evil 
that  the  wonder  still  remains  that  it  was 
ever  done  at  all. 

Upon  how  small  an  incident  the  salvation 
of  a  soul  may  turn  !  Beading  in  a  newspa 
per  some  report  of  the  religious  meetings  in 
Park  street,  the  school-boy  took  his  weekly 
half  holiday  for  a  walk  into  town,  to  observe 
one  for  himself.  A  stranger  remarking  his 
serious  interest,  gave  the  prompting  word, 
and  the  great  decision  of  life  was  there  re 
solved  upon.  Happily,  he  had  the  guidance 
of  a  sympathizing  friend  and  a  judicious 
counselor,  in  the  uncle  whose  house  was  his 
home.  The  new  life  developed  itself  less  in 
the  way  of  outward  demonstration,  whether 
of  word  or  action,  than  through  the  quiet 
manifestation  of  Christian  principle  and  love.. 
4 


38  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.. 

"John's  state  of.  mind,"  writes  his  uncle, 
a  month  later,  "  has  interested  me  much,  as 
far  as  I  have  been  able  to  draw  it  out.  He 
does  not  express  himself  very  fully,  nor  man 
ifest  much  emotion.  I  see  nothing  incon 
sistent  with  the  hope  he  indulges,  while  his 
uniform  quiet,  steady  habits  do  not  afford 
much  opportunity  for  the  exhibition  of 
marked  religious  experience.  He  inquires 
with  new  interest  about  religious  truth,  ex 
presses  confidence  in  his  hope,  and  penitence 
for  sin,  and  looks  upon  prayer  meetings  very 
differently  from  formerly.  He  is  thrown 
very  little  into  company,  and  probably  does 
not  feel  drawn  into  personal  effort  to  reach 
others.  He  has  once  or  twice  spoken  in  the 
young  men's  meeting,  of  his  purpose  and 
hope)7 

At  the  same  time,  John's  own  letters  give 
such  glimpses  of  his  new  experience  as 
make  me  feel  now,  as  I  felt  at  the  time,  how 
thorough  and  genuine,  and  also  how  charac 
teristic  it  wa,s. 

"  I  cannot  talk  or  write  about  religious 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  39 

feelings  at  all  times,  father  ;  did  you  not 
find  it  so  ?  It  is  hard  for  me  to  express  my 
thoughts  on  paper." 

"  Oh !  how  kind  God  has  been  to  let  me 
live  on  so  long,  while  I  sinned  against  him. 
He  is  merciful  and  slow  to  anger." 

"  I  know,  father,  that  you  would  like,  of 
all  things,  to  have  me  become  one  of  God's 
ministers,  and  give  all  my  powers  for  his 
service.  But  I  would  rather  talk  than  write 
about  that ;  and  I  must  think  more  before  I 
decide, — if  it  is  for  me  to  decide." 

"  It  is  a  very  pleasant  thought  to  me  that 
I  have  so  many  friends  in  heaven,  and  that 
if  I  live  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord  I  shall  soon 
meet  them  there." 

"  One  verse  gave  me  a  stronger  determi 
nation  to  be  very  watchful  over  my  actions 
and  thoughts.  I  am  surrounded  by  tempta 
tions  to  do  wrong  in  many  little  things  ;  but 
I  pray  much  for  God's  Holy  Spirit  to  deliver 
me  from  them.  Pray  for  me,  as  I  know  you 
do." 

Some  months  after,  moved  solely  by  his 


40  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

own  desire,  lie  publicly  confessed  Christ, 
by  uniting  with  the  Broadway  Tabernacle 
Church, — in  whose  fellowship  he  continued 
until  death,  and  from  whose  sanctuary  he 
was  borne  to  the  grave.  One  who  was  a 
deacon  of  that  church  in  1858,  and  who  had 
much  opportunity  to  know  John,  volunteers 
this  reminiscence.  "  I  well  remember  the 
incidents  attending  his  conversion.  I  re 
member  his  appearance  before  the  Commit 
tee  of  the  Church  ; — how  well  satisfied  I 
was  that  he  was  sincere,  that  he  had  weighed 
the  import  of  the  act,  that  he  knew  what  he 
was  doing,  though  in  the  modesty  and  sin 
cerity  of  his  heart  he  said  but  little.  I  met 
him  several  times  afterwards,  and  never 
without  thinking,  'here  is  a  young  man 
wholly  devoid  of  the  frivolities  of  youth,  and 
who  is  living/or  a  purpose?  But  little  did 
I  think  he  would  so  soon  accomplish  his 
destined  work  on  earth.  I  have  often 
thought,  if  I  should  live  to  see  it,  what  sta 
tion  of  usefulness  he  might  fill.  It  never 
occurred  to  me  that  his  sun  would  set  in  the 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  41 

early  morning.  How  beautiful  to  see  the 
young  and  ardent  heart  consecrated  to 
Christ !  And  how  sublime  to  see  the  same 
heart,  with  all  its  high  aspirations  in  this 
life,  consecrated  to  country  ; — after  having 
counted  the  cost,  yet  saying,  Here  am  I. 
And  how  heart-rending  to  think  such  costly 
sacrifices  must  be  made  to  have  a  country ! 

"  Every  fiber  of  my  heart  beats  in  unison 
with  the  cause  that  the  dear  one  gave  his 
precious  life  to  sustain.  I  honor  his  patri 
otism,  his  manly,  his  Christian  decision. 
His  memory  will  be  ever  dear  to  me.  And 
should  I  live  to  see  the  day  when  I  can  say, 
;  My  country,  one  and  undivided/  I  shall 
think  of  those  who  with  brave  and  manly 
hearts,  though  perchance  with  tender  and 
delicate  frames,  dared  to  offer  up  their  lives 
to  make  it  so." 
4* 


VII. 

T  COULD  even  be  jealous  of  the  homes 
that  so  long  divided  him  from  mine,  and 
of  the  friends  who  now  claim  his  memory  as 
a  family  treasure,  were  it  not  that  he  himself 
always  reserved  that  sacred  word  Home  for 
one  household,  and  loved  that  with  an  affec 
tion  not  only  undivided,  but  matured  and 
strengthened  by  the  unavoidable  separations 
of  years.  But  while  he  never  could  be 
weaned  from  his  proper  home,  he  carried 
into  the  several  families — at  Manchester,  at 
Mentone,  at  Cambridge,  at  New  Haven — in 
which  he  lived  as  a  son,  the  same  gentle, 
cheerful,  obliging  disposition,  the  same  care 
ful  and  considerate  habits,  the  same  pure 

(42) 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  43 

and  manly  ways,  the  same  helpful  ingenuity, 
the  same  enthusiasm  for  the  noble  and  the 
good,  that  made  him  even  as  a  child  the 
abiding  comfort  and  joy  of  the  house. 

His  ready  fingers  would  construct  an 
yEolian  harp  or  an  aquarium  with  equal 
ease  ;  would  dissect  a  sewing-machine  at 
first  sight,  then  put  it  together  and  claim 
the  privilege  of  using  it  for  himself ;  would 
acquire  the  complicated  arts  of  prestigia- 
tion,  and  practice  these  for  the  bewilder 
ment  of  little  children,  the  amusement  of  the 
family  circle,  or  the  entertainment  of  a  bed 
ridden  invalid  ;  would  prepare  all  manner 
of  curious,  ingenious,  and  beautiful  things, 
for  gifts  and  ornaments  ;  mottoes  and  de 
vices  in  skillful  penmanship  ;  sketches  in 
crayon,  ink,  or  color  ;  picture  frames  in  cones, 
leather,  or  passe-partout ; — ah,  this  copy  of 
Palmer's  Faith  that  lie  framed,  it  leads  me 
now  with  a  deeper  want  and  a  more  tender 
meaning  to  the  Cross ! 

"We  recall  with  pleasure/7  writes  his 
Cambridge  giurdian,  "our  intimate  ac- 


44  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

quaintance  with  him,  and  the  intercourse  we 
had  with  him  while  he  was  a  member  of 
our  own  household ;  his  correct  life,  his 
kindness  to  the  children,  his  identification 
with  our  interests,  his  ingenuity  and  skill, 
and  especially  his  hopeful  experience  of  a 
change  of  heart." 

That  "  kindness  to  children"  prompts  him 
on  receiving  a  money  present  for  his  fifteenth 
birth-day,  to  consult  whether  he  shall  buy  a 
squirrel,  a  canary,  or  some  gold-fishes,  for 
the  pleasure  of  his  little  cousins,  while  he 
will  gratify  his  own  tastes  by  subscribing 
for  the  best  agricultural  journal. 

Indeed  he  himself  then  edited,  printed, 
and  published  a  tiny  journal  of  his  own ! 
The  printing-press  and  type-case  were  of  his 
own  construction ;  aud  I  find  among  his 
later  papers  various  diagrams  for  an  im 
proved  power-press,  apparently  suggested 
by  his  youthful  experience  in  typography. 

One  who  has  made  boy-life  a  special 
study,  and  whose  pen  has  enriched  our  juve 
nile  literature  with  the  model  sketches  of 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMOEIA  L.  45 

"Robert    Dawson"   and   "Reuben    Kent," 
sends  this  reminiscence  : 

"  I  have  a  wee  paper  called  the  t  Weekly 
Wonder/  bearing  the  date,  Feb.  22d,  1858, 
in  which  it  says  '  the  editor  intends  to  have 
a  good  time  this  week  in  Portsmouth.7  He 
came  and  called  upon  me,  and  left  me  this, 
the  fruit  of  a  home  printing-press  experience, 
which  I  kept — expecting  one  day  to  show  it 
to  the  grown-up  editor,  or  minister,  or  law 
yer.  And  this  youthful  editor  was  John — 
your  dead  yet  living  John  !  I  took  it  out 
from  my  desk  when  I  saw  his  death,  and 
wondered  if  the  tall  and  beautiful  boy  who 
gave  me  this  were  he  !  Ah,  my  dear  friend, 
who  can  repair  the  terrible  breach  made  in 
your  family  ?  God  can  make  you  willing  to 
have  it  so  ;  as  he  made  you  willing  to  put 
him  on  the  altar  of  sacrifice — but  oh,  the 
desolating  sense  of  loss  I  I  know  they  say, 
1  not  lost,  but  gone  before  ;'  yet  it  is  loss 
ever  while  we  live — a  loss  which  the  Father 
of  our  spirits  and  the  God  of  grace  and  con 
solation  makes  up  in  spiritual  gains  and 


46  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

promise,  perhaps ;  but,  after  all,  with  the 
sense  of  loss  still  aching,  yearning.  I  feel 
with  you  and  for  you. 

"  The  account  of  John's  last  hours  which 
you  sent  to  your  friends  was  very  affecting. 
Precious  is  the  evidence  that l  all  was  right7 
with  him  for  the  last  great  struggle. 

"  What  a  re-affirmation  are  we  having  of 
God's  great  law  of  vicarious  sacrifice !  Will 
it  not  issue  in  such  a  peace  as  the  world  can 
not  give,  neither  take  away  ?  I  believe  it 
will,  and  a  glorious  future  is  before  the 
country."* 

Another  lady  friend,  of  rare  discernment 
and  cultivation,  who  saw  him  in  these  blos 
soming  days,  gives  this  picture  of  his  gentle 
and  winning  conversation  : 

"  When  John  was  at  school  at  Cambridge- 
port,  his  aunt  brought  him  over  to  see  us 
one  afternoon,  and  on  another  day  he  found 
his  way  by  himself.  I  thought  and  said 
then  that  I  had  never  seen  a  lad  who  im 
pressed  me  as  he  did  ;  in  every  way  so 

*  Mrs.  Helen  C.  Knight. 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  47 

attractive  and  winning  ;  at  an  age  generally 
considered  an  awkward  one  with  boys,  there 
was  a  grace  and  a  modest  dignity  in  his 
bearing,  and  an  ease  and  frankness  in  his 
conversation,  that  surprised  and  delighted 
me.  No  one  could  see  him  without  wishing 
the  next  time  might  come  soon.  We  had,  I 
remember,  quite  a  long  talk,  partly  playful 
and  partly  serious. — He  went  with  me  to  a 
garden  seat,  where  we  had  this  pleasant 
conversation  under  the  trees.  If  he  had 
been  like  others  of  his  age,  it  would  not 
have  so  dwelt  in  my  memory,  but  I  have 
never  forgotten  it  or  him  ;  and  if  Mrs.  G. 
seemed  to  me  an  aunt  to  be  envied  because 
she  could  have  him  with  her,  and  if  in  that 
brief  interview  I  could  recognize  something 
noble  and .  unusual  in  his  nature — a  purity, 
refinement  and  rare  gentleness — how  inex 
pressibly  dear  he  must  have  been  to  you 
who  thoroughly  knew  him,  and  how  inesti 
mable  your  loss  in  his  early  removal.  Still 
his  father  must  feel  that  the  consolation  is 
in  proportion  to  the  immensity  of  his  loss. 


48  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

To  have  owned  him,  called  him  Ms, — to  have 
trained  him  to  such  admirable  excellence,  to 
have  given  him  first  to  his  country,  and  then 
in  his  unstained,  unsullied  youth  to  his  God 
and  to  heaven,  where  the  angels  were  wait 
ing  and  wanting  him — oh,  what  happiness  in 
it  all,  in  the  midst  of  deepest  grief  ;  a  strange 
joy  and  fervent  gratitude  to  God  for  the 
gift  of  twenty  years,  for  the  blessing  of  his 
life  and  of  his  death  I" 


VIII. 

TIT" AS  it  predestined  that  the  boy  should 
be  a  soldier  ?  A  country  life  still  fas 
cinated  him,  and  the  pursuits  of  agriculture, 
to  be  ennobled  by  science,  seemed  for  a  time 
to  fill  his  aspirations.  In  this  vein  he  has 
"a  little  plan  to  propose"  for  a  summer  re 
cess.  "  I  soon  will  have  a  vacation  of  seven 
weeks,  right  in  the  midst  of  haying  time. 
Why  could  I  not  work  a  part  of  .the  time — 
a  month,  perhaps — on  some  farm  near  where 
you  will  be,  and  earn  something  ?  It  will 
make  me  strong,  and  I  would  feel  more  like 
study  during  the  winter.  I  have  deter 
mined  to  ask  you  about  it,  and  if  you  and 
father  think  well  of  it,  why,  I  am  ready  to 
try  it.'7  So  he  hired  himself  out  for  the 
5  (49) 


5 0  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

haying  season,  and  the  farmer  reported  that 
he  well  earned  his  board  and  wages. 

He  tried  in  every  way  to  endure  hard 
ness  ;  and,  notwithstanding  a  rapid  growth 
in  stature,  he  succeeded  by  gymnastic  exer 
cises  and  robust  occupations,  in  gaining  a 
well-proportioned  muscular  development. 
But  this  was  best  accomplished  by  means  of 
the  military  drill  to  which  he  was  subjected 
for  two  years,  at  Dr.  Russell's  Collegiate 
and  Commercial  Institute,  in  New  Haven. 
His  hankering  after  an  agricultural  rather 
than  a  professional  life,  and  my  own  doubt 
of  his  ability  to  endure  the  confinement  of 
profevssional  studies  and  labor,  had  led  to  his 
transfer  from  a  course  preparatory  for  col 
lege  to  a  mixed  classical  and  scientific  course, 
with  a  view  to  a  general  education. 

"I  use  the  military  drill/'  said  Dr.  R., 
"  as  an  auxiliary.  It  promotes  discipline  ; 
it  forms  habits  of  punctuality,  order,  and 
obedience  •  it  gives  physical  culture  ;  it  fur 
nishes  a  vent  for  boyish  vivacity  ;  and,  be 
side,  it  gives  young  men  such  a  knowledge 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  5 1 

of  tactics,  that  they  will  be  able  to  handle  a 
musket  to  good  purpose,  in  any  emergency/7 
In  those  days  this  last  consideration  was  of 
least  account.  Yet,  then  and  thus  it  was 
that  he  acquired  the  knowledge  of  arms 
which,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  gave  him 
the  assurance  that  he  could  serve  his  coun 
try  to  advantage,  and  which,  in  a  raw  regi 
ment  of  volunteers,  made  him,  as  his  colonel 
testified,  "  worth  more  to  his  company,  than 
any  man  in  it." 

Our  education  of  children — whatever  plan 
may  be  involved  in  it — is  determined  at 
each  step  by  the  expediency  of  the  hour. 
But  underlying  all  our  measures,  controlling 
•all  our  plans  even  in  their  fluctuations,  is 
the  far-seeing,  far-reaching  plan  of  the  Infi 
nite  Father,  shaping  his  instrument  for  his 
own  end. 

But,  muscular  development  and  military 
drill,  were  not  pursued  to  the  neglect  of 
mental  and  moral  culture.  "Acting  and 
thinking/7  is  his  chosen  motto,  for  success  in 
life,  "  throwing  all  one's  powers  upon  the 


52  TILE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

one  thing  to  be  done."  And  here  is  the  day 
dream  of  that  halcyon  time.  "  For  ten 
years  I  must  work  ;  then  a  traveler's  life 
until  I  know  foreign  lands.  Returning,  I 
will  build  my  house  ;  fill  its  libraries,  gal 
leries,  etc.,  with  the  results  of  my  travels ; 
join  scientific  societies  ;  study,  read,  write, 
and  publish  till  the  end!  But  for  this  I 
must  work  now  ;  so,  here  goes  for  Whately's 
Reasoning,  and  Chambers7  Zoology." 

—  But  what  a  treasure  of  substantial  re 
alities  comes  to  light  in  this  book  of  school 
boy  compositions,  dating  at  sixteen.  Not 
that  they  exhibit  maturity  of  thought,  or 
extent  of  reading, — for  the  fragmentary 
character  of  his  education  had  not  favored 
either  rapid  or  symmetrical  development, — 
but  they  show  a  regard  for  moral  culture, 
which  made  him  beloved  and  even  respected 
beyond  his  years.  "  What  constitutes  a 
gentleman  ?"  he  asks  ;  and  his  answer  enu 
merates  honesty,  truthfulness,  kindness,  or 
true  politeness,  "  that  will  not  suffer  us  to 
insult  or  injure,  in  any  way,  by  wrord  or 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEML \RIAL.  5 3 

action,  tliose  whom  fortune  has  not  favored 
as  much  as  ourselves ;"  neatness,  punctual 
ity,  for,  "  if  a  person  is  behindhand  in  meet 
ing  his  engagements,  it  is  a  sign  of  bad 
training,  and  ill-manners ;"  and  then  he 
adds  :  "  above  everything  else,  every  one 
should  have  the  love  of  God  in  his  heart ; 
and  if  he  strives  to  serve  Him,  in  all  things, 
he  will  be  a  gentleman  indeed." 

Concerning  "  reputation/7  he  writes  :  "we 
are  all  making  our  reputations  now  ;  every 
word  and  action  will  tell  in  future.  Strive, 
then,  to  gain  a  good  reputation ;  you  need 
not  be  a  great  orator,  commander,  or  writer, 
to  gain  it,  but  be  honest,  be  diligent,  gener 
ous  and  kind.  Make  yourself  respected 
and  loved  by  your  teachers  and  schoolmates  ; 
for  your  reputation  at  school  will  follow  you 
all  your  life." 

A  subject  had  been  assigned  for  composi 
tion,  under  the  title  of  "  the  advantages  and 
disadvantages  of  telling  the  truth."  He 
opens  his  essay  with  the  remark  :  "  I  think 
that  the  wording  of  this  subject  is  rather 
5* 


54  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

unforiunate,  for  we  should  have  it  decided 
once  for  all,  that  it  b  always  best  to  tell 

the  truth,  and  never  best  to  tell  a  lie 

If  a.  man  is  justified  in  lying  to  save  his  life, 
a  child  is  justified  in  lying  to  save  himself 
from  a  whipping, — and  we  should  have  fine 
society  if  children  were  thus  brought  up !  ... 
The  Bible  should  be  our  guide  in  this  mat 
ter  ;  and  how  can  any  one  think  it  disadvan 
tageous  to  tell  the  truth  concerning  any 
thing,  to  save  life  or  reputation,  to  please  or 
displease,  to  make  money  or  friends,  or  to 
accomplish  any  purpose,  when  we  read  in 
that  true  book,  '  all  liars  shall  have  their 
part  in  the  lake  that  burns  with  fire.; ;; 

Writing  of  "  manliness  in  school-life/7  he 
makes  it  essential  to  this,  that  there  should 
be  habits  of  industry,  of  politeness,  of  truth, 
of  honor — "  an  honest  and  upright  course, 
and  obedience  to  rules  ;" — and  this  he  urges, 
because  "  the  habits  formed  in  school,  will 
always  follow  us,"  and  because  "all  the 
qualities  of  manliness  are  right  and  proper 
in  the  sight  of  God." 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  55 

In  an  essay  on  "  learning  to  take  care  of 
ourselves,"  he  sums  up  all  by  saying,  "  form 
the  habit  of  thinking  clearly  and  rapidly, 
of  knowing  when  you  are  right,  and  then 
going  ahead." 

And,  finally,  in  answering  the  question, 
"  for  whom  and  for  what  am  I  working,"  he, 
says :  "  Am  I  working  for  myself  alone  ? 
Ought  I  to  be  working  for  self,  alone  ?  No  : 
to  work  for  self,  thinking  of  no  others,  is 
simply  selfishness.  If  then,  I  work  not  for 
myself  alone,  whom  do  I  work  for?  Is 
there  not  One,  above  all  others,  whose  I 
am,  and  for  whom  I  am  to  work  ?  Yes  ; 
and  in  His  holy  Word  I  find  this  command  : 
1  Whether  ye  eat  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye 
do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God.7  Is  not  this 
a  glorious  thought,  that  I  am  working,  not 
for  myself,  nor  friends,  only  ;  but  for  that 
great  Being  who  made  me,  and  who  gives 
me  all  I  have  ?  In  all  that  I  do, — study 
work,  or  play, — I  am  improving  or  abusing 
the  talents  He  has  given  me ;  and  in  pro 
portion  as  I  improve  them,  so  shall  my  re- 


5 6  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL 

ward  be.  Thus  it  seems  that  I  am  working 
for  my  Heavenly  Father,  and  that  He  is  the 
Being  for  whom  and  for  whose  glory  all 
should  work." 


IX. 

T\ID  ever  a  boy  regard  Latin  as  other  than 
a  senseless  imposition  upon  his  time  and 
talents  ?  Did  ever  a  boy  grow  up  to  the 
stature  of  a  college  examination  without 
questioning  the  wisdom  of  his  seniors  at 
divers  steps  of  the  preparatory  course? 
This  boy  at  least  was  no  exception.  And 
this  was  the  point  and  the  only  point,  at 
which  his  will  came  into  opposition  with 
parental  wishes,  but  always  to  yield  with  a 
manly  grace. 

At  fourteen,  he  says,  "  I  am  getting  along 
very  well  in  all  my  studies  except  Latin, 
and  that  I  do  not  make  much  progress  in, 
because  I  do  not  understand  it  nor  like  it 
at  all.  I  think  I  might  just  as  well  spend 


5  8  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

the  time  on  something  which  will  do  me 
more  good  when  I  get  older  as  on  that 
which  does  not  seem  to  pay  for  the  time  I 
spend  on  it." 

At  fifteen  he  has  gravely  argued  the  ques 
tion  of  College  with  his  uncle, — and  has 
settled  it  in  the  negative.  "  Uncle  E.  just 
asked  me  what  I  was  studying  for.  I  said 
I  did  not  know. 

"  '  Are  you  going  to  college  V 
"  '  No,  sir.     I  guess  and  hope  not.7 
"'Why,    what    do    you    dread?  —  hard 
study?7 

"  '  I  don't  dread  anything  ;  but  I  do  not 
wish  to  go.7 " 

Still,  his  whim,  or  prejudice,  or  fancy,  or 
whatever  is  the  cause  of  this  temporary 
aversion  to  a  college  course,  never  takes  the 
form  of  obstinacy  ;  and  so  a  word  of  coun 
sel  from  home  brings  the  response,  "  I  was 
glad  to  get  your  kind  letter.  I  think  that 
within  a  year  or  two  I  shall  be  able  to  de 
cide  better  about  my  employment  than  I  can 
now,  so  I  will  not  ask  any  more  questions, 


THE  SER  GE ANT'S  MEMORIAL.  5  9 

If  I  can  help  it ;" — and  this  also  ;  "  I  am 
trying  to  learn  all  I  can  at  school,  and  at  all 
other  places ;  for  I  shall  never  again  have 
so  good  an  opportunity." 

His  reported  standing  in  every  school, 
and  the  volunteer  testimony  of  teachers, 
show  that  it  was  never  study,  as  such,  that 
was  irksome,  but  only  the  thought  of  a  long 
prescribed  course  whose  practical  bearing 
upon  the  pleasure  or  the  usefulness  of  his 
future,  he  was  not  yet  in  a  position  to  com 
prehend.  The  conflict  between  a  desire  for 
the  best  results  of  education  and  a  distaste 
for  the  preliminary  routine,  breaks  forth 
now  and  then,  in  such  strains  as  this  :  "  On 

Thursday  evening  I  went  to  hear ;  the 

best  lecture  I  ever  heard.  How  he  must 
feel  to  hold  such  an  audience  in  close  atten 
tion  for  over  two  hours.  I  would  sooner 
have  his  place  than  that  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales;  for 'what  comparison  is  there  be 
tween  a  crowd  drawn  by  a  man's  rank  and 
name,  and  one  drawn  and  moved  by  a  man's 
eloquence  ? 


60  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

"  Of  course  you  will  say,  why  don't  you 
go  to  college,  then? — which  is  just  my 
trouble,  for  I  have  no  inclination  for  college 
but  quite  the  reverse." 

I  had  compromised  upon  this  ; — that  if  he 
would  master  Latin,  the  first  step  toward  a 
liberal  education  in  any  department,  the 
question  of  entering  college  should  be  re 
served  for  his  own  maturer  judgment ;  and 
having  graduated  creditably  at  Dr.  Russell's 
Institute — venting  his  patriotism  withal  in 
a  prize  declamation  upon  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill — he  entered  the  scientific  school  of 
Yale  College  in  the  fall  of  1860,  intending 
to  pursue  the  regular  course  in  that  depart 
ment.  A  little  experience  in  the  attempt 
to  master  physical  science  without  a  broad 
intellectual  culture,  satisfied  him  of  his  mis 
take,  and  awoke  in  him  the  very  decision 
that  the  advice  of  others  had  failed  to  sg-^ 
cure. 

Writing  of  engineering,  he  says,  "  I  see 
plainly  that  this  is  not  the  life  for  me.  I 
should  not  be  happy  in  it ;  the  thing  is  not 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  6 1 

in  me.  I  do  not  like  a  business,  money-mak 
ing  life.  Mother,  I  will  tell  you  plainly 
that  I  would  like  best  to  be  a  minister,  but 
I  dare  not  be,  I  cannot  be." 
.  *  One  who  has  known  what  it  was  to  review 
a  youthful  profession  of  piety  by  a  later 
standard  of  intellectual  measurement,  and 
to  subject  affections  and  emotions  to  the 
analytic  processes  of  the  judgment,  will  sym 
pathize  with  this  dear  boy  in  the  honest  and 
testing  struggle  he  now  endured  between  a 
heart  that  yet  believed  with  trembling  and 
a  reason  that  questioned  his  dearest  faith 
and  hope.  "  When  I  joined  the  church/7  he 
continues,  "  I  firmly  believed  as  I  professed. 
But  I  was  ignorant  of  much, — ^and  one  should 
never  go  on  blindly  thinking  he  has  the  Sa 
viour  when  he  has  not." 

It  was  but  a  passing  cloud — enough  of 
darkness  to  make  the  Saviour's  presence 
more  desired,  and  therefore  the  more  felt 
and  prized  when  the  soul,  emerging  from  the 
vacancy  and  terror  of  unbelief,  realized  that 
He  yet  was  there.  And  as  this  cloud  of 
6 


62  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

doubt  and  despondency  rolled  away  from 
the  inner  spirit,  there  came  a  clearer  light 
upon  the  outer  course.  Why  is  it  that  his 
new  light  makes  my  eyes  so  misty  that  I 
can  hardly  transcribe  the  words  in  which  he 
announced  it  ? 

"Nov.  5,  1860.  Dear  Father,  I  sent  a 
long  letter  to  mother  to-day,  which  were 
better  unsent.  I  wrote  it  in  desperation,  for 
I  feel  that  I  am  mistaken; — you  and  my 
friends  are  right.  The  course  I  am  now  in 
is  not  the  course  I  need. 

"  Uncle  D.,  by  chance,  called  here  this 
morning,  and  we  fell  into  a  long  talk,  in 
which  he  gave  me  much  good  advice,  and 
has  fairly  talked  me  into  college,  so  that 
freely  I  own  up  wrong,  and  desire  to  make 

up  for  all  lost  time I  have  been  a 

fool,  and  it  will  serve  me  right,  if  you  say, 
'  No  ;  keep  on  as  you  are.7  ....  Being  very 
sorry  for  the  trouble  I  am  giving  you  by  my 
former  folly,  I  am,  I  trust,  a  wiser  and  cer 
tainly  a  repentant  son." 

Though  hiding  this  great  consolation  in 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  G3 

my  own  heart,  it  was  out  of  its  blessed  full 
ness  that  I  preached,  on  the  following  Sab 
bath,  from  the  words,  "  /  have  no  greater 
joy  than  to  hear  that  my  children  ivalk  in 
truth."  I  never  again  commended  the  min 
istry  to  his  choice  ;  but,  on  leaving  Phillips' 
Academy  for  college,  he  told  me  playfully, 
that  he  liked  his  Andover  quarters  so  well 
he  had  re-engaged  them  for  three  years  suc 
ceeding  his  graduation  at  Yale. 

It  was  not  needed  that  the  test  of  death 
should  be  added  to  this  test  of  doubt,  to  re 
assure  him  that  he  had  the  Saviour.  But 
since  it  was  not  given  to  any  of  his  friends 
to  see  him  die  in  the  far-off  camp,  it 
is  grateful  to  remember  the  foreshadowing 
of  the  triumph  there  that  was  given  here, 
when  in  a  sharp  and  critical  disease  he  lay 
for  days  upon  the  very  edge  of  the  grave. 
As  he  grow  better,  he  expressed  his  great 
anxiety  for  personal  friends  whom  he  thought 
to  be  unprepared  for  death  and  eternity ; 
adding  :  "  I  have  been  thinking  a  great  deal 
about ,  since  I  have  been  sick  ;  I  think 


64  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

that  if  it  had  pleased  God  to  take  away  my 
life,  I  should  have  been  ready.  I  have  not 
felt  at  all  afraid  to  die,  because  I  believe 
that  Christ  has  forgiven  all  my  sins.'7 


X. 


T17ITH  an  energy  and  persistence  that 
proved  the  thoroughness  of  his  pur 
pose,  he  began  at  once  under  a  private  tutor 
at  New  Haven,  to  pursue  the  Andover  sen 
iors,  by  forced  marches,  through  the  Ana 
basis  ;  and  having  outmeasured  their  para- 
sangs,  he  entered  Phillips  Academy,  in  De 
cember,  1860.  Of  course  he  entered  at  a 
disadvantage,  from  the  irregularity  of  his 
classical  training,  and  at  first  he  felt  this 
keenly.  "  I  will  do  my  best  in  my  new  posi 
tion  ;  but  I  shall  have  hard  times,  and  if  I 
fail,  all  will  be  lost."  As  the  class  were 
reviewing  text-books  that  he  had  not  read, 
his  daily  lessons  were  often  of  double  length. 
"  Nothing  hurts  me  more  than  to  flunk  or 

6*  (65) 


66  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

fizzle,  and  again,  nothing  does  me  more 
good,  for  on  the  next  lesson,  I  always  study 
till  I  know  it,  even  though  I  see  the  next 
day,  before  I  go  to  bed.  Dr.  Taylor  is  very 
considerate,  and  will  excuse  me  on  all  that 
I  have  not  before  read ;  but  I  hate  to  ask 
him,  or  to  be  excused  at  all.  I  never  was  in 
a  better  school.  And  I  will  not  give  up,  if  I 
study  every  night  till  morning. 

"Last  night,  at  seven,  I  commenced  to 
study  on  the  lesson  for  New  Year's  day ; 
with  the  exception  of  fifteen  minutes,  I  stud 
ied  hard  until  a  quarter  of  one  (1861).  I 
never  saw  the  old  year  out  so  before  ;  but  I 
saw  every  word  of  that  Greek  out,  and  then 
went  to  bed. 

"I  have  not  been  able  to  retire  before 
eleven,  any  night  this  week  ;  twice  I  have 
been  up  till  nearly  one,  and  twice  I  got  up 
at  half  after  four.  I  intend  to  take  a  good 
stand  as  a  scholar,  unless  I  make  myself  sick 
in  the  attempt. 

"  Father  writes  to  me  to  be  sure  and  take 
eight  hours  sleep,  every  day,  and  plenty  of 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  67 

exercise.  This  is  what  we  call,  l  morally 
impossible/  in  view  of  f  wo  pages  daily  of 
Greek,  or  one  hundred  and  forty  lines  of 
Virgil,  to  be  recited  to  Dr.  Taylor.'7 

It  was  a  natural  sequence  of  all  this,  that 
his  old  enemy,  the  headache,  which  was  put 
to  the  rout  at  the  agricultural  school,  should 
return  with  violence  ;  and  great  was  the 
relief  when  he  could  relax  these  efforts,  and 
report,  "  there  is  now  no  doubt  of  my  ability 
to  hold  my  place  in  the  senior  class." 

With  this  force  of  will  and  this  zeal  in 
study,  was  united  strength  of  moral  pur 
pose  in  regard  to  the  ordinary  temptations 
of  student-life.  In  reply  to  my  request  for 
some  positive  assurance  that  he  would  avoid 
that  special  bane  of  the  student, — scenes  of 
conviviality,  in  which  the  cigar  and  the 
wine-cup  tempt  to  idleness,  wastefulness,  and 
excess, — he  writes  : 

"  I  can  say,  honestly,  that  I  NEVER  i  took 
a  drink'  of  any  intoxicating  or  other  liquor. 
And  I  willingly  promise  that  I  never  will ; 
for  I  detest  it  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart. 


68  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

"  As  to  tobacco,  I  have  used  it,  as  you 
know.  I  can  say  nothing  in  its  defence, 
except  as  a  pleasure ;  and  those  who  have 
never  smoked  cannot  appreciate  that.  It 
seems  but  a  little  thing  for  you  to  ask  me  to 
give  it  up  ;  and  it  is,  compared  with  what  I 
ask  of  you  ;  but  it  is  terribly  hard. 

"  I  will  promise  not  to  use  it,  in  any  form, 
while  at  Andover,  and  if  ever  again,  I  will 
let  you  see  me  the  first  time.  I  trust  I  shall 
be  able  to  keep  this  promise.  The  academy 
pledge  I  should  probably  have  broken  ;  but 
I  will  be  true  to  you." 


XL 

"MARCH  4,  1861.  "To-day  Lincoln  be- 
^*-  gins  his  important  career.  I  hope  he 
will  do  his  best  to  punish  some  of  the  trai 
tors  now  in  office/7 

April  22.  "  There  is  great  excitement 
here  [Andover]  about  the  times.  A  com 
pany  is  now  forming  in  town,  and  the  mili 
tary  spirit  runs  high.  Dr.  Taylor  does  not 
consider  it  our  duty  to  enlist  at  present,  and 
he  advises  us  to  do  nothing  rashly.  But  he 
approves  the  forming  of  a  company  in 
school,  of  such  as  are  capable  of  bearing 
arms,  for  practice  and  the  learning  of  mili 
tary  tactics.  In  virtue  of  my  graduation  at 
Russell's,  I  shall  probably  have  an  office, 
perhaps  a  high  one,  and  will  you  do  me  the 

(69) 


f  0  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

favor  to  send  by  mail  an  edition  of  Scott's 
Manual  for  infantry  ?  I  feel  quite  excited, 
and  want  to  enlist." 

To  this  I  replied  that  the  ^exigency  did  not 
yet  require  that  students  should  abandon 
their  whole  life-plan  for  the  present  defence 
of  the  country  ;  that,  from  the  nature  of  the 
conflict  and  of  the  territory  upon  which  it 
must  be  waged,  the  desperation  of  the  rebel 
leaders,  and  the  persistent  malignity  of  the 
slave-power,  the  war  must  last  for  at  least 
three  years  ;  that  just  now  the  rush  of  volun 
teers  was  greater  than  the  President  had 
called  for  ;  but  that  the  war  would  be  no 
holiday  affair,  and  the  time  might  come 
when  I  must  bid  him  go,  and  when  he  must 
be  ready  to  take  every  risk  ;  adding,  "  I 
hope  you  will  become  perfect  in  drill,  so 
that  .if  called  to  go,  you  may  be  fully  pre 
pared." 

He  was  elected  captain  of  the  "Ellsworth" 
or  Phillips  Cadets — a  company  of  some  sev 
enty  academy  boys,  whose  daily  drills  gave 
a  new  life  to  Andover  Hill  during  the  sum- 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  71 

mer  of  1861.  The  Andover  Advertiser 
makes  frequent  mention  of  "  Capt.  Thomp 
son's"  proficiency.  Under  this  responsibility, 
he  writes  : 

"  I  thank  you  for  the  Manuals.  I  am  stu 
dying  them  continually,  and  practicing  with 
my  company.  We  have  two  drills  a  week 
from  Captain  Oliver,  U.  S.  A.,  and  ours  is 
the  best  drilled  company  in  town.  I  am 
trying  to  go  farther  than  mere  head-work, 
by  a  private  drill  daily  with  a  heavy  musket 
I  have  borrowed.  It  is  fine  exercise,  and 
good  for  my  own  military  training,  as  I  am 
careful  to  learn  every  motion  rightly  and 
on  time.  I  am  strong  for  war  ;  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  South  needs  a  lesson  which  can 
not  be  taught  by  '  compromise '  or  '  starva 
tion/  » 

"  Do  you  want  me  to  go,  or  do  you  only 
not  object  if  it  be  necessary  ?  I  stand  ready 
to  go  at  once,  if  I  can  find  a  suitable  place. 
Should  a  dozen  of  our  boys  volunteer,  I 
would  be  one  ;  but  it  would  be  hard  to  en 
list  in  a  strange  company  that  one  knows 


72  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

nothing  about.  I  think,  when  there  is  an 
other  call,  and  colleges  and  schools  respond. 
Phillips  boys  will  not  be  behind. 

"  We  all  find  it  very  hard  to  study,  and 
Dr.  Taylor  doesn't  get  cross." 

His  own  judicious  management  of  the 
company  did  much  to  secure  the  favorable 
consideration  of  the  Principal  for  what 
might  easily  have  become  a  serious  cause  of 
distraction  in  the  school. 

"  He  was  always  so  true  and  manly  in  his 
deportment/7  writes  Dr.  S.  H.  Taylor,*  "  so 
considerate  in  whatever  he  supposed  might 
involve  any  irregularity  in  the  school,  that 
he  secured  my  warm  interest  and  entire  con 
fidence.  In  the  company  connected  with  the 
academy,  there  were  from  time  to  time 
plans  and  projects  started  «that  might  be 
supposed  to  interfere  with  the  general  plan 
or  course  of  study  in  the  school,  but  he  was 
so  thoughtful  in  regard  to  all  these,  that  as 
commander,  he  would  never  have  one  of  them 
put  to  vote  till  he  had  consulted  me ;  and 

*  Principal  of  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  Mass, 


THE  SER  GEANTS  MEMORIAL.  7  3 

then,  if  my  views  were  different  from  his 
wishes,  with  a  generous  and  manly  spirit, 
without  the  least  appearance  of  opposition 
he  complied  with  what  I  thought  best.  So 
in  regard  to  everything  else  connected  with 
the  school,  he  was  all  that  I  could  have  de 
sired.  I  can  now  recall  nothing  in  his  whole 
deportment  which  I  could  have  wished  oth 
erwise.  You  can  well  imagine,  then,  that 
even  in  the  midst  of  the  hurry  and  cares  of 
the  closing  days  of  the  term,  the  news  of  his 
death  was  most  painful  to  me. 

"The  remembrance  of  your  son  will 
always  be  sweet.  He  died  in  the  service  of 
the  country,  and  he  died  a  Christian — two 
circumstances  which  involve  more  true  no 
bleness  than  all  things  else.77 

A  dear  friend,*  who  often  watched  from 
his  garden  the  boy-captain  drilling  his  com 
pany  upon  the  opposite  green,  and  who  had 
also  a  personal  knowledge  of  his  character,, 
writes  : 

"  Your  noble  boy  we  all  knew  well  enough 

*  Professor  Austin  Phelps,  D.  D. 

7 


V4  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

to  love  him  and  trust  him.  His  quiet  man 
liness  won  our  hearts,  and  we  have  often 
spoken  of  him  in  our  family  circle  as  one  of 
the  few  young  friends  whose  military  career 
we  watched  anxiously  and  hopefully/7 

And  another  honored  divine  of  New  Eng 
land,  among  the  foremost  of  her  patriots,* 
sends  this  reminiscence  of  the  academy  cap 
tain  : 

"Two  years  since,  when  attending  the 
examination  of  the  theological  students  at 
Andover,  I  there  saw  your  son  at  the  head  of 
a  company  of  the  young  men  in  the  academy. 
After  drilling  them  for  some  time,  he 
marched  them  to  the  front  of  the  Mansion 
House,  where  they  were  paraded  in  honor 
of  some  of  the  trustees  who  were  at  that 
time  present.  His  manly  air,  his  skillful 
drilling,  and  his  graceful  military  salute  to 
the  trustees,  as  the  governors  of  the  institu 
tion,  arc  still  fresh  before  me.  A  few  days 
since,  my  eye  glanced  casually  at  a  newspa 
per  -announcement  of  his  decease,  and  I  can 

Key,  W.  T.  Dwight,  D.  D.,  Portland,  Maine. 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  V5 

now  easily  recognize  in  the  young  soldier  of 
the  106th  N.  Y.  S.  V.,  who  has  so  early 
fought  the  good  fight  of  Christian  patriotism, 
the  more  youthful  leader  of  Andover  Hill. 

"  The  loss  of  such  a  son  must  awaken  the 
bitterness  of  a  father's  grief.  While  you  have 
reason  to  bless  God  that  you  have  had  such 
a  son  to  give  up  to  our  suffering  country, 
you  need,  and  I  doubt  not  you  have  received, 
strength  sufficient  to  prevent  you  from  fall 
ing  utterly  for  the  time. 

"  To  fight  this  monstrous  treason  and  per 
jury  is  as  sacred  a  duty  as  to  send  missiona 
ries  to  the  heathen ;  and  it  seems  to  de 
mand  more  submission,  more  simple  trust, 
when  the  young  soldier  falls  prematurely, 
than  when  the  missionary  is  thus  removed. 
But,  in  the  view  of  God,  your  dear  son  is  as 
truly  a  conqueror  as  if  the  last  battle  had 
been  fought  and  the  last  army  of  the  rebel 
lion  cut  down.  He  has  gone  up  soon  to  re 
ceive  his  reward,  far  sooner  than  you  looked 
for,  but  to  as  blessed  a  rest  as  if  a  veteran 
from  a  hundred  conflicts. 


76  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

"Patient,  serene  courage ;  disinterested 
consecration  to  one's  country,  because  God 
is  thus  served  ;  and  a  filial  trust  the  ground 
work  of  all — no  exhibition  of  youthful  worth 
can  be  more  attractive  or  powerful  in  its 
influence.  Your  son,  being  dead,  still  speaks, 
and  with  more  energy  than  if  he  were  still 
on  earth. 

"  Not  a  few  young  soldiers  of  the  cross 
who  entered  our  armies  with  a  similar  spirit 
have,  like  him,  already  exchanged  the  sword 
of  earthly  conflict  for  the  palm  of  the  con 
queror  above.  Our  country  knows  not  how 
to  part  with  them,  but  Heaven  is  the  hap 
pier  for  every  such  addition  to  her  chosen 


XII. 


warrior  shades  of  ancient  Greece 
*  must  have  been  stirred  with  a  bewilder 
ing  jargon  of  time  and  place,  as  the  Phillips 
seniors  of  1861,  on  graduation  day,  were 
enrolled  as  a  company  of  Greek  Skirmishers, 
and  drilled  by  Hardee's  Tactics  done  into 
Greek  by  "Abrocomas,  the  Chief  General." 
The  audience,  however,  seemed  conscious  of 
no  anachronism  in  this  sudden  transforma 
tion  of  the  captain  of  the  Ellsworth  Cadets, 
who  put  his  spearmen  and  bowmen  in  battle 
array  against  the  Megarians  as  promptly  as 
if  they  had  been  but  going  through  an  every 
day  drill  in  front  of  the  Seminary. 

It  was  not  strange  that  a  youth  who  had 
spent  two  years  at  a  military  school,  and 
7*  P?) 


78  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

had  elicited  the  commendation  of  military 
men  for  his  skillful  handling  of  a  company, 
should  feel  himself  called  to  serve  his  coun 
try  in  arms,  and  more  competent  to  serve 
her  in  this  capacity  than  some  newly-com 
missioned  officers.  Said  Dr.  Taylor,  who 
had  a  fatherly  interest  in  his  success  at  Col 
lege,  "  If  John  makes  up  his  mind  that  it 
is  his  duty  to  enter  the  army,  nothing  can 
hold  him  back." 

And,  surely,  no  Christian  patriot  would 
seek,  upon  any  personal  grounds,  to  hold 
back  a  son  qualified  to  bear  arms,  from  the 
defense  of  the  nation  in  this  great  conflict 
for  Constitutional  liberty,  for  human  free 
dom,  and  for  Christian  civilization.  But 
in  his  case,  at  that  time,  there  were  many 
things  to  be  considered  in  determining  the 
question  of  duty.  Not  yet  nineteen  years 
of  age,  of  a  slender  constitution,  impaired 
anew  by  the  severe  application  of  the  win 
ter,  it  was  doubtful  whether  he  could  really 
be  of  service  in  the  camp  or  the  field.  It 
seemed  possible,  also,  that  his  eagerness  to 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  79 

enlist  was  but  a  boyish  enthusiasm,  caught 
by  sympathy,  which  might  fail  under  the 
test  of  hardship.  Moreover,  it  is  indis 
pensable  to  the  welfare  of  the  country  that, 
even  in  time's  of  war,  a  portion  of  her  sons 
should  be  in  training  for  future 'service  in 
the  educated  professions  ;  and  while  in  a 
certain  sense  man  counts  for  man  in  such  a 
struggle,  yet  to  detach  these  from  an  un 
finished  course  of  education,  and  set  them 
upon  the  work  of  present  defense,  would  be 
a  more  serious  detriment  to  the  permanent 
interests  of  the  nation,  than  the  withdrawal 
of  an  equal  number  of  farmers  or  artisans 
from  manual  labor. 

This  was  clearly  seen  by  that  foremost 
patriot  of  the  American  Revolution,  John 
Adams,  when  he  counseled  Mr.  Jonathan 
Mason,  who  had  been  entered  as  a  student  in 
his  law  office,  to  continue  at  his  books,  not 
withstanding  the  commotions  of  the  opening 
Revolution.  No  sooner  had  the  news  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  reached  Bos 
ton, -than  young  Mason,  fired  with  martial 


80  THE  SERGEANT1  S  MEMORIAL. 

enthusiasm,  wrote  to  Mr.  Adams,  proposing 
to  relinquish  his  studies  and  to  take  up 
arms  for  the  country.  Writing  from  Phila 
delphia,  the  very  center  of  Revolutionary 
fervor,  on  the  18th  July,  1776,  Mr.  Adams 
says  : 

"  I  cannot  advise  you  to  quit  the  retired 
scene  of  which  you  have  hitherto  appeared  to 
1)6  so  fond,  and  engage  in  the  noisy  business 
of  war.  I  doubt  not  you  have  honor  and 
spirit  and  abilities  sufficient  to  make  a  figure 
in  the  field  ;  and  if  the  future  circumstances 
of  your  country  should  make  it  necessary,  I 
hope  you  would  not  hesitate  to  buckle  on 
your  armor.  But  at  present  I  see  no  neces 
sity  for  it.  Accomplishments  of  the  civil 
and  political  kind  are  no  less  necessary  for 
the  happiness  of  mankind  than  martial  ones. 
We  cannot  all  be  soldiers  ;  and  there  will 
probably  be,  in  a  very  few  years,  a  greater 
scarcity  of  lawyers  and  statesmen  than  of 
warriors. 

"  The  circumstances  of  this  country  from 
the  years  1755  to  1758,  during  which  period 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIA  L.  S 1 

I  was  a  student  in  Mr.  Putnam's  office,  were 
almost  as  confused  as  they  are  now,  and  the 
prospect  before  me,  my  young  friend,  was 
much  more  gloomy  than  yours.  I  felt  an 
inclination  exactly  similar  to  yours,  for  en 
gaging  in  active  martial  life,  but  I  was  ad 
vised,  and,  upon  a  consideration  of  all  cir 
cumstances,  concluded,  to  mind  my  books. 
Whether  my  determination  wras  prudent  or 
not,  it  is  not  possible  to  say,  but  I  never 
repented  it." 

Clearly  then,  as  matters  stood  during  the 
first  six  months  of  the  present  war,  there 
was  no  urgency  for  the  enlistment  of  minors 
engaged  in  a  special  course  of  education. 

But  this  young  aspirant  for  military  ser 
vice  felt  his  inward  call.  To  prove  his 
power  of  endurance,  he  made  »the  tour  of 
the  White  Mountains  on  foot,  walking  fifteen 
and  twenty  miles  a  day,  with  a  knapsack 
on  his  shoulders  and  a  gun  in  his  hand. 
His  capacity  for  useful  service,  as  shown  by 
his  success  in  the  Andover  organization,  he 
urged  as  his  chief  reason  for  wishing  to  en- 


82  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

ter  the  army.  And  as  for  study,  he  had  no 
thought  of  reliquishing  a  college  education, 
but  would  return  to  that  after  the  war. 
There  seemed  also  a  Providential  opening 
in  the  offer  of  a  New  England  Governor 
who  had  witnessed  his  Andover  drills,  to 
give  him  a  commission  in  a  regiment  just 
starting  for  the  South. 

Yet  with  all  this  strength  of  desire  and 
of  conviction,  such  was  his  deference  toward 
his  natural  advisers,  that  when  I  said  to 
him,  "  My  opinion  is  that  in  the  present 
surplusage  of  volunteers,""  students  are  not 
called  upon  to  give  up  college  for  the  army, 
— but  here  is  the  money  for  your  outfit  at 
either  ;  go  to  Concord  and  get  your  com 
mission,  or  go  to  New  Haven  and  enter 
Yale;" — he  went  alone  to  think,  and  I 
doubt  not  to  pray,  and,  on  returning,  said, 
"  Father,  I  do  wish  to  enter  the  army,  and  I 
feel  that  there  is  the  place  for  me  ;  but  as 
you  seem  to  prefer  it,  I  will  go  to  college." 

Believing  that  another  year's  development 

*  September,  18GI. 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  83 

of  .brain  and  muscle  would  make  him  so 
much  the  better  soldier,  if  that  should  prove 
to  be  his  calling,  I  was  content  to  leave  the 
final  settlement  of  the  question  to  whatever 
opportunity  or  emergency  might  afterwards 
arise ;  and  so  he  entered  college  in  good 
faith,  though  with  abated  zeal. 

He  does  not  study  "  very  hard,"  nor  aim 
to  take  more  than  a  "  fair  "  stand — for  his 
heart  is  enlisted  in  another  service.  Still 
he  "  has  study  enough  to  keep  him  busy," 
and  in  the  general,  college-life  moves  on 
pleasantly  and  prosperously.  ...  "I  like 
Herodotus  quite  well ;  I  think  I  do  like 
Greek  pretty  well,  considering.  I  try  to 
make  the  best  of  everything,  but  most 
earnestly  wish  that  'peculiar  circumstances' 
would  let  me  enter  the  army.  I  would  start 
to-night  if  I  could." 

Seeking  the  best  wisdom  for  him  and  for 
myself,  I  commended  him  to  the  thoughtful 
and  patriotic  counsels  of  my  most  tried  and 
faithful  friend,  Rev.  Leonard  Bacon,  D.IX 
of  New  Haven. 


84  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

"I  have  had  a  talk  with  John,"  wrote 
Dr.  B.  in  reply,  "  but  found  that  I  was  not 
likely  to  make  much  impression  by  the  ar 
guments  which  I  used  to  dissuade  him  from 
interrupting  the  course  of  his  education. 
My  object  in  talking  with  him  was  not  so 
much  to  influence  him  as  to  know  the  state 
of  his  mind. 

"  I  do  not  see  how  you  can  wisely  over 
rule  or  obviate  his  strong  inclination.  What 
the  Providence  of  God  intends  concerning 
him,  we  cannot  foresee.  But  if  he  were  my 
son,  and  I  could  not  change  his  mind — if  I 
saw  that  the  impulse  was  strong  upon  him, 
and  was  making  study  and  all  peaceful  pur 
suits  distasteful  to  him, — I  think  I  should 
be  compelled  to  say,  however  reluctantly, 
'  It  is  of  the  Lord.7  Perhaps  God  has  pur 
poses  concerning  him  which  our  short-sight 
ed  wisdom  would  baffle  if  it  could.  We 
must  say  in  such  cases,  *  The  will  of  the 
Lord  be  done.' 

"  Perhaps  it  would  be  well  for  you  to  put 
him  upon  an  examination  of  his  own  motives 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  85 

— whether  he  wants  to  undertake  this  mili 
tary  service  from  mere  restlessness,  from  the 
spirit  of  adventure,  or  from  higher  motives 
and  in  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice. 

"  I  will  only  add  that  I  was  much  pleased 
with  the  modest  manliness  of  his  bearing  in 
the  whole  conversation.  Should  he  go  into 
the  army,  I  think  he  will  be  found  every 
inch  a  man.  When  my  sons  went,  my  feel 
ing  was,  Somebody's  sons  must  go,  and  why 
not  mine  ?  May  God  direct  you  and  bless 
you  in  this  dear  son  and  in  all  your  chil 
dren  !" 

As  the  result  of  this  interview,  John — 
who,  in  common  with  his  father,  was  seeking 
to  know  the  will  of  God  in  this  matter — de 
termined  to  rest  his  final  decision  upon  an 
application  to  Governor  Buckingham  for  a 
commission  as  lieutenant.  This  conclusion 
he  communicates  in  these  playful  words  : 

"To-morrow  evening  I  will  send  to  the 
Governor  of  this  State  a  series  of  documents 
froni  yourself,  Uncle  D.,  Mr.  Russell,  Dr. 

8 


86  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

Bacon,  etc.,  etc.,  showing  all  my  good  quali' 
ties  ;  (each  letter  of  the  above  named  to  be, 
in  fact,  an  essay  on  some  particular  good 
quality,  so  as  to  have  no  waste  of  recom 
mendation  by  repetition !)  These  the  Gov 
ernor  will  read,  and,  if  he  gives  me  an  ap 
pointment,  well  and  good  ;  if  not,  I  will  drop 
the  subject  and  devote  myself  to  Latin,  and 
worse  Greek,  and  worse  still  algebra ;  that 
is,  if  I  pass  the  examination  next  week. 
This  soup  remains  to  be  served.  This  is  my 
final  decision,  to  which, 

il  Witness  my  hand  and  seal, 
"  Professor  or  Colonel, 
"  JOHN  H.  THOMPSON." 


When  the  Governor  replied  that  he  had 
no  vacancy,  the  predestined  soldier  wrote, 
"  Because  the  Governor  did  not  send  me 
a  commission  as  brigadier-general,  or  even 
first-lieutenant,  I  see  no  reason  to  infer  that 
the  will  of  Providence  is  against  me."  But 
that  will  was  not  yet  made  plain. 

The  interest  of  Governor  Buckingham  in 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  8 7 

his  application  is  most  kindly  expressed  in 
the  following  note  of  April  9,  1863  : 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — My  thanks  for  your  favor 
of  the  26th  inst.,  respecting  the  death  of 
your  noble  son. 

"I  remember  him  with  perfect  distinct 
ness,  and  regretted  at  the  time  he  called  on 
me  I  saw  no  way  in  which  I  could  commis 
sion  him  in  a  Connecticut  regiment,  and  se 
cure  to  the  honor  of  the  State  the  services 
of  so  pure  a  Christian  patriot.  Allow  me 
to  express  my  deep  sympathy  with  you  and 
your  family  in  the  irreparable  loss  you  have 
sustained. 

"  This  is  one  of  the  strong  proofs  of  the 
criminality  of  this  rebellion — one  of  the  sacri 
fices  necessary  for  its  suppression.  What  a 
cost  to  our  nation !  But  the  compensation 
will,  I  doubt  not,  be  the  deliverance  of  the 
captive,  the  extension  of  the  principles  of 
civil  liberty,  and  the  more  complete  and 
perfect  security  for  personal  rights. 

"  Allow  me  to  rejoice  with  you  in  the  rich 


88  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

consolation  which  you  have  respecting  the 
consecration  of  your  noble  son  not  only  to 
the  interests  of  his  country,  but  to  the  cause 
of  Christ. 

"  With  much  sympathy, 

"  Believe  me  very  truly  yours, 

"  WM.  A.  BUCKINGHAM/7 


XIII. 

AN  the  25th  day  of  May,  1862,  General 
^  Banks,  whose  forces  had  been  seriously 
reduced  by  the  demands  of  General  Me 
Clellan's  campaign  on  the  peninsula,  was 
driven  down  the  Shenandoah  valley  by 
the  superior  numbers  of  Stonewall  Jack 
son's  army,  and  the  alarm  was  sounded  from 
Washington  that  the  capital  was  in  danger. 
Several  regiments  of  State  militia  at  once 
volunteered  for  three  months7  service — 
among  these  the  22d  regiment  of  New  York 
National  Guards.  The  exigency  upon  which 
the  long-coveted  enlistment  was  made  to 
hinge  had  plainly  arisen,  and  the  boy's  heart 
was  wild  with  joy  when  a  telegram,  signed 
with  his  father's  name,  summoned  him  to  lay 
8*  89) 


90  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

down  his  books  and  to  take  up  his  musket. 
His  classmates  had  never  seen  him  so  jubi 
lant  even  in  the  merriest  of  college  sports. 
In  twenty-four  hours  lie  was  enrolled  as  a 
private  in  Company  G.  of  the  22d,  and  was 
on  his  way  to  join  the  regiment  at  Baltimore. 
It  was  well  for  father  and  son  that  both  had 
so  long  and  carefully  weighed  the  question 
of  duty,  that  when  this  new  peril  of  the 
country  came  there  was  nothing  left  but  for 
the  one  to  say  Go,  and  for  the  other  to 
march. 

Though  not  much  given  to  personal  inti 
macies,  yet  in  his  nine  months'  stay  at  Yale, 
John  had  favorably  impressed  his  classmates 
by  the  same  qualities  that  had  marked  his 
early  school  life.  The  fellow-student  who 
stood  nearest  in  his  confidence  thus  sums  up 
that  brief  college  career  : 

"  Your  son  was  highly  respected  by  the 
class,  and  esteemed  by  all  who  became  ac 
quainted  with  him.  Among  his  classmates 
he  was  very  reserved,  never  obtrusive,  and 
admired  by  all  for  his  manly  bearing  and 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  91 

gentlemanly  deportment.  Among  the  mem 
bers  of  his  own  Division  he  was  a  great 
favorite,  and  won  praise  from  all  by  his  mirth 
and  pleasant  manner.  He  was,  as  we  are 
accustomed  to  say,  the  life  of  his  Division, 
and  I  think,  if  he  could  have  remained  with 
us  during  the  course,  he  would  have  become 
very  popular  ;  and  I  know,  as  our  acquaint 
ance  ripened  into  intimacy,  that  he  would 
have  been  respected  by  the  class,  and  the 
recipient  of  its  honors. 

"  In  the  studies  of  the  college  he  never 
professed  any  brilliant  attainments,  nor  did 
he  attempt  any  display.  He  preferred  other 
things ;  and,  in  fact,  from  the  very  com 
mencement  of  his  college  course,  he  seemed,  in 
one  sense,  a  stranger  to  us,  and  doubtless 
duty  called  him  elsewhere.  He  never  en 
tered  with  zeal  into  study,  because  his  heart 
and  soul  were,  as  I  understood  him,  enlisted 
in  another  and  nobler  cause,  in  the  service 
of  which  he  hoped  to  enroll  his  name.  He 
always  seemed  restless  and  impatient  under 
the  restraint,  longing  for  the  word  to  go  to 


92  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

battle  ;  and  when  I  think  how  delighted  ho 
was  in  entering  the  service  in  the  humblest 
capacity,  1  cannot  believe  otherwise  than 
that  his  motives  sprung  from  the  purest  and 
most  patriotic  sources  ;  and  were  I  able  to 
relate  the  many  conversations  we  have  had 
on  the  subject,  his  own  words  would  be  the 
strongest  proof  of  his  sincerity.  We,  who 
knew  him  and  were  under  him  at  Andover, 
can  testify  that  he  merited  other  situations. 
He  was  the  first  representative  of  his  class 
in  the  war,  and  we  take  pleasure  that  he 
was  such." 

The  class  itself  expressed  its  appreciation 
of  him  in  the  following  tribute  : 

"  WHEREAS,  we  have  heard  with  heartfelt 
sorrow  of  the  death  of  our  late  classmate, 
JOHN  HANSON  THOMPSON,  while  in  the  ser 
vice  of  his  country  j  therefore, 

"  Besolved,  That  we,  his  classmates,  have 
lost  in  his  death  a  warm  friend  and  genial 
companion  ;  and  our  country,  a  devoted  pa 
triot. 

"  Resolved,  That  we,  who  knew  him  well, 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  93 

can  testify  to  the  earnest  patriotism  and 
noble  ambition  which  impelled  him  to  leave 
books  and  friends  that  he  might  devote  his 
life  and  labor  to  his  country. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  tender  to  his  bereaved 
family  our  sincere  sympathy  and  condolence. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  class  wear  the  usual 
badge  of  mourning  for  thirty  days  ;  and 
that  a  committee  of  six  be  appointed  to  at 
tend  the  funeral ;  also,  that  a  copy  of  these 
resolutions  be  sent  to  his  family,  and  to  the 
daily  papers  of  New  Haven,  and  to  the  Yale 
Literary  Magazine,  for  publication. 


XIV. 

TJIS  first  experience  of  camp  life  might 
f  have  dampened  his  ardor,  but  for  the 
thoroughness  of  his  conviction  that  duty 
called  him  to  serve  his  country  in  any  capac 
ity  :  and  so,  after  a  night  spent  in  rain  and 
mud,  and  a  heavy  morning's  task  in  digging 
trenches,  carrying  the  loads  of  soil  upon  a 
board,  for  lack  of  a  wheelbarrow,  he  says, 
cheerily,  "  Now  all  this  is  extremely  'rough  ;' 
but  it  is  jolly,  if  one  takes  it  right.77  After 
a  few  days,  the  regiment  was  ordered  to 
Harper's  Ferry,  then  a  post  of  danger.  "  I 
am  very  glad,  indeed,"  he  writes.  "  We 
may  be  brought  into  active  service — may 
not.  I  will  not  speculate  where  I  know 
nothing.  But,  whatever  may  come,  I  am 

(94) 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  95 

ready — it  is  what  I  came  for.  I  have  been 
happy  thus  far,  and  shall  not  complain  at 
any  orders.  We  take  one  day's  rations,  and 
each  man  twenty  rounds  of  ball  cartridge  ; 
so  we  are  ready  for  anything,  and  hurrying 
on.  Much  love  to  all ;  and,  as  I  know  not 
what  may  come,  Good-bye  to  one  and 
all." 

The  three  months7  enlistment  passed 
quietly  in  Camp  Aspinwall,  at  Bolivar,  with 
just  enough  of  rumors  and  alarms  to  keep 
the  Twenty-second  on  the  qui  vive,  without 
testing  its  pluck  in  an  engagement.  The 
routine  of  guard  and  picket  duty,  the  daily 
drill,  with  occasional  special  exercises  in 
connection  with  a  company  of  artillery 
posted  near  the  camp,  gave  our  young  pri 
vate  a  thorough  "breaking  in"  for  a  sol 
dier's  life  ;  while  the  harder  service  of  the 
pick  and  the  spade,  to  which  he  was  subjected 
in  digging  entrenchments,  and  the  open-air 
exposure  to  heat  and  cold,  rain,  wind  and 
mud,  tested  both  his  physical  endurance  and 
his  martial  enthusiasm. 


06  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMOEIAL. 

With  scrupulous  attention  to  personal 
cleanliness,  frequent  bathing,  the  avoid 
ance  of  noxious  habits,  and  a  "merry 
heart,"  cheerful  in  the  consciousness  of  duty, 
calm  in  its  reliance  upon  God,  he  maintained 
a  tone  of  health  and  of  spirits  that  threw 
over  his  daily  letters  the  charm  of  the  sur 
rounding  rivers,  woods  and  mountains,  in 
their  sunniest  hours. 

"  I  am  enjoying  myself,  and  growing 
strong  and  brown.  One  gets  accustomed 
to  sleeping  and  waking  '  to  order ; 7  and, 
when  one  can  lie  down  on  a  bare  board,  and 
in  two  minutes  be  soundly  and  comfortably 
asleep,  he  must  be  either  tired  or  not  par 
ticular.77 

"  August  7th.  Father's  birth-day !  Turn 
out  the  guard!  Present  arms!  Allow  me 
to  congratulate  you  on  the  happy  termina 
tion  of  your  —  year. 

"  One  son  having  passed  through  a  com 
plete  course  of  youthful  instruction — a  tour 
in  Europe,  all  boarding  and  public  schools, 
the  Yale  Scientific,  and,  lastly,  an  elaborate 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  97 

course  in  Yale  itself — now  takes  his  stand 
in  the  noble  cause  of  his  country,  and  toils 
in  the  trenches  in  the  mud  of  the  f  sacred 
soil.7 " 

But,  with  all  his  bonhomie,  of  which 
this  is  a  characteristic  specimen,  he  does  not 
forget  to  write  of  the  prayer  meetings, 
nightly  at  his  captain's  tent—"  interesting 
and  sensible  meetings,"  and  inspiriting  by 
the  numbers  in  attendance,  and  by  the  music 
of  the  soldiers'  hymns. 

He  writes  to  a  sister,  "  Do  not  fear  that  I 
smoke  too  much,  or  that  I  shall  fall  into  bad 
habits.  I  have  promised  not  to  play  cards — 
or  I  did  promise  before  I  went  to  college — 
and  I  have  kept  my  word  thus  far." 

The  moral  tone  of  the  regiment,  and  the 
personal  character  of  his  tent-mates,  favored 
his  desire  to  maintain  an  upright  and  con 
sistent  Christian  walk  amid  the  dissipating 
influences  of  camp  life.  Indeed,  the  reputa 
tion  of  the  Twenty-second  for  gentlemanly 
virtues  seems  indelibly  impressed  upon  the 
residents  of  Harper's  Ferry.  The  owner  of 


98  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

a  small  fruit  garden  near  Bolivar  said  to  me, 
recently,  "  That  Twenty-second  was  the  best 
regiment  ever  sent  here.  They  didn't  steal !  " 
Certainly,  private  Thompson  of  Company 
G,  always  counted  himself  fortunate  in  his 
association  with  such  "jolly,  good  fellows," 
who,  while  relishing  fun  and  working  man 
fully,  maintained  in  the  tent  and  the  camp, 
the  courtesies  of  the  gentleman  and  the 
graces  of  the  Christian.  What  Company  G 
thought  of  their  young  recruit  their  own 
resolutions  testify  ;  in  which  they  "  deeply 
deplore  the  early  death  of  one  who  gave 
promise  of  so  much  usefulness,  and  who,  by 
the  transparent  sincerity  and  truthfulness  of 
his  character,  by  his  unvarying  courtesy  and 
kindness  of  disposition,  by  his  unassuming 
modesty,  and  by  the  manifestation  of  all  the 
traits  that  mark  the  true  Christian  gentle 
man,  had  become  greatly  endeared  to  all  of 
us,  who  rejoice  to  remember  him  as  comrade 
and  friend — as  a  soldier,  prompt,  ready, 
active  and  obedient ;  as  a  friend,  true, 
earnest  and  sincere." 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  9  9 

The  Company  voted  to  inscribe  his  name 
on  the  roll  of  its  Honorary  Members,  with 
the  words — 

in  iij*  Benriw  of  $i 


XV. 

AUGUST  23,  1862.— "  In  looking  back 
•**•  over  the  last  three  months,  I  can  only 
feel  glad  that  I  have  had  the  experience 
here,  and  do  not  grudge  the  sacrifices  made. 
I  am  in  better  health  and  spirits  than  when 
I  started.  And  in  looking  forward,  I  have 
for  a  few  days  considered  the  whole  subject 
carefully,  and  think  I  had  better  go  again, 
for  three  years  or  the  war, — that  it  is  my 
duty  to  go. 

"  This  is  the  sum  of  all.  I  have  always 
wanted  to  go  to  the  war.  After  long  wait 
ing,  I  have  tried  the  experiment.  And  hav 
ing  seen  the  hardest  service,  except  a  fight, 
I  leave  it  to  you  whether  my  letters  have 
been  grumbling  complaints. 

(100) 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  1 01 

"  I  am  in  for  it,  and  like  it ;  but  as  to  ro 
enlisting,  if  you  '  don't  see  it/  I  will  do  my 
duty  in  college,  as  heretofore." 

One  so  ready  to  do  his  duty,  in  any  sphere, 
could  not  be  long  in  learning  to  what  sphere 
he  was  now  called.  Of  course,  he  did  not 
wish  to  re-enlist  as  a  private,  though  willing 
to  do  even  that,  if  his  country's  need  re 
quired  it ;  but  he  felt  himself  competent  for 
a  higher  post.  "  I  may  say,  without  boast 
ing,  that  I  have  a  better  theoretical  knowl 
edge  of,  and  have  had  more  practice  in, 
all  military  movements,  than  half  of  our 
officers  ;  while,  for  general  education,  my 
advantages  have  been  far  better,  whatever 
my  knowledge  may  be.  I  have  tried  thor 
oughly  to  understand  all  military  tactics. 

"  I  can  not  think  it  is  my  duty  to  go  as  a 
private  for  three  years,  as  long  as  we  have 
so  many  ignorant  officers.  As  an  officer,  it 
would  be  my  duty  to  go,  because  I  think  I 
know  enough,  and  have  the  full  spirit  of  the 
thing,  and  don't  care  much  for  anything 
else." 

9* 


102  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

His  aspirations,  however,  were  not  high, 
and  were  based  more  upon  the  conviction  of  a 
capacity  to  serve,  than  upon  a  desire  of  per 
sonal  distinction.  A  sergcantcy  would  suit 
well  enough,  and  this  post  was  offered  him 
him  in  the  One  Hundred  and  Eleventh  New 
York  State  Volunteers,  just  as  the  term  of 
the  Twenty-second  National  Guard  expired. 
It  was  necessary,  however,  that  he  should  re 
turn  to  New  York,  and  be  mustered  out, 
before  enlisting  anew,  and  this  led  to  a 
series  of  adventures  that  proved  his  patience, 
courage  and  enthusiasm  in  his  vocation. 

On  the  very  day  when,  he  should  have 
reached  his  new  regiment  at  Harper's  Ferry, 
Lee's  arriiy  invaded  Maryland  at  the  Mono- 
cacy,  and  the  train  in  which  the  sergeant 
left  Baltimore  was  stopped  at  that  point  by 
the  destruction  of  the  bridge.  As  the  train 
approached  the  scene  of  danger,  he  loaded 
his  revolver  and  went  forward  to  the  loco 
motive,  to  keep  an  eye  upon  the  engineer, 
concerning  whose  loyalty  a  suspicion  had 
been  started  among  the  passengers.  By  the 


TEE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  1 03 

time  the  cars  returned  to  Baltimore,  that 
excitable  city  had  been  placed  under  martial 
law,  and  hardly  had  the  sergeant  left  the 
depot,  when  he  was  arrested  by  a  mounted 
patrol  of  the  provost-guard,  and  with  a  lot 
of  ragamuffins,  scoured  up  from  the  streets,, 
was  marched  ignominiously  to  the  guard 
house,  some  two  or  three  miles  distant. 
Being  in  soldier's  dress,  but  without  arms, 
and  having  no  descriptive  papers, — for  Red 
Tape  had  no  printed  form  of  mustering  out 
on  hand,  at  the  New  York  head-quarters,  and 
he  had  expected  to  be  mustered  in  at  Harper's 
Ferry, — he  was  presumed  to  be  a  deserter, 
and  had  nothing  but  his  honest  face  to  cer 
tify  his  statement. 

As  he  humorously  describes  it :  "  While  I 
stood  in  front  of  the  depot, 

Lo  !  from  afar  there  came  a  band, 
With  one  that  midst  them  stately  rode, 
A  leader  in  the  land ; — 

who  reined  up  his  steed,  and  shouted, '  Halloa 
you !  have  you  a  pass  ?'  '  No,  sir.7  *  Fall 


1 04  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

in,  then.7  The  bugle  sounded  forward  ;  and 
at  once  your  son  was  receiving  the  honors 
of  Baltimore,  marching  through  the  crowded 
streets  with  a  body-guard  of  twenty-five 
mounted  men,  with  drawn  sabres,  ten  upon 
each  side,  and  the  others  closing  up  front 
and  rear ; — a  horse-thief  just  before  him, 
drunken  stragglers  around  him,  and  he  him 
self  having  '  nary  document7  nor  friend  to 
back  him." 

After  long  waiting,  with  the  prospect  of 
a  night  in  dismal  and  dirty  quarters,  he  suc 
ceeded  in  getting  a  hearing,  w^hich  resulted 
in  his  being  marched  from  office  to  office, 
until  he  was  given  into  the  custody  of  the 
guard  to  be  conveyed  to  fort  McHenry! 
Up  to  this  point  he  had  borne  the  affair 
•with  good-humored  patience,  forbearing  to 
aggravate  his  blundering  captors  by  protes 
tations  or  complaints ;  but  now  he  demanded 
to  be  conducted  to  the  commander  of  the 
post  for  a  personal  investigation.  At  this 
the  marshal  ordered  him  back  to  the  hotel 
where  his  knapsack  was  deposited,  there  to 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  105 

remain  under  guard.  Fortunately,  lie  met  a 
friend  who  gained  access  to  General  Wool, 
and  procured  for  him  a  pass  to  return  to 
New  York. 

By  this  time  Red  Tape  had  succeeded  in 
obtaining  from  Washington  a  printed  form 
of  discharge  from  service  in  the  22d ;  and 
fortified  with  this  and  with  a  pass,  the  ser 
geant  set  out  immediately  by  way  of  Harris- 
burgh  for  Wheeling,  hoping  in  this  way  to 
reach  the  lllth  and  assume  his  post  in  sea 
son  for  the  impending  battle.  But  at  Cum 
berland  he  found  that  he  could  proceed  no 
further — the  communication  being  intercep 
ted  upon  that  side  also  ; — and  thus  he  was 
spared  the  feeling  of  a  personal  disgrace  in 
the  surrender  of  Harper's  Ferry.  All  this 
time  he  was  giving  his  whole  energy,  at  his 
own  expense,  to  the  attempt  to  serve  his 
country  in  the  field,  while  states,  cities  and 
towns  were  lavishing  bounty-money  to  at 
tract  recruits.  In  his  letters  of  this  date  he 
pleasantly  signs  himself  the  "  Would-be-ser 
geant  seeking  for  a  chance  to  fight." 


106  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

At  Cumberland  he  volunteered  his  ser 
vices  in  drilling  the  citizens,  and  in  other 
measures  of  defence  against  a  rumored  rebel 
invasion.  He  did  good,  also,  as  he  had  op 
portunity — affectionately  warning  a  young 
officer  whom  he  saw  under  the  effects  of 
liquor,  of  the  danger  and  the  shame  of  such 
indulgence  ;  and  giving  words  of  sympathy 
and  comfort  to  the  sick  and  wounded  in  hos 
pital.  Having  taken  up  the  vocation  of  a 
soldier  as  a  religious  duty,  he  never  lost 
sight  of  its  grave  responsibilities  ;  and  the 
enthusiasm  and  vivacity  with  which  he  en 
tered  upon  his  work  was  tempered  by  the 
thoughtful  forecasting  of  possibilities.  In 
describing  the  general  hospital  at  Clear 
Spring,  near  Cumberland — its  healthy  loca 
tion  and  the  excellent  management  of  the 
surgeons, — he  adds,  "  I  looked  with  interest 
on  this  hospital-work,  for  my  service  in  these 
parts  may  sometime  end  there,  for  a  time  at 
least." 

While  waiting  at  Cumberland  for  the 
coveted  opportunity  of  service,  he  attracted 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  107 

the  notice  of  a  captain  in  the  106th  N.  Y. 
S.  V.,  then  stationed  at  New  Creek,  who 
offered  him  a  sergeantcy  in  Company  A  of 
that  regiment,  where  his  true  military  life 
began,  and  in  which  he  continued  till  its 
close* 


XVI 

M  T  HAD  seen  a  notice  of  the  death  of  your 
son  in  the  Evening  Post"  writes  an 
honored  friend  who  himself  has  rendered  to 
the  country  the  highest  personal  services 
and  sacrifices, — "  and  Mrs.  L.  had  cut  it  out 
to  be  sent  with  other  slips  to  my  son  in 
Louisiana,  but  little  did  we  think  that  the 
name  Thompson,  there,  was  your  own  family 
name.  The  'Sergeant  Thompson7  made  a 
deep  impression  upon  us.  It  sounded  so 
manly  and  so  patriotic  when  every  one  who 
has  some  education  strives  for  a  commis 
sion."* 

It  was  his  own  conviction  that  his  knowl* 
edge  of  the  manual  could  be  used  to  the  best 

*  Professor  Francis  Licber,  LL.D, 
(108) 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  109 

advantage  in  the  position  of  a  rion-commis- 
sioned  drill-officer,  and  he  determined  to  be 
gin  with  doing  faithfully  the  particular  work 
that  he  understood. 

On  the  20th  Sept,  1862,  he  writes  from 
New  Creek  Station,  Ya.,  "  I  am  happy  to 
state  that  I  am  just  about  in  the  position 
where  I  have  tried  to  place  myself  for  the 
last  two  weeks.  After  all  my  various  luck, 
ill  and  good,  I  have  found  a  home  for  three 
years*.  Capt.  P.  offers  me  a  second  ser- 
geantcy  in  his  company.  This  is  not  as  high 
as  was  offered  at  Harper's  Perry,  but  I  don't 
want  to  fight  Indians  in  the  West  with  pa 
roled  prisoners.  1,  2,  3,  How  about  that 
lllth?  So  I  shall  accept  this  offer,  and  if 
I  am  2nd  sergeant  for  the  war,  it  is  only  my 
fault.  If  I  rise  to  a  commission  it  is  my 
own  glory." 

His  competence  and  energy  soon  won  for 
him  the  confidence  of  both  officers  and  men. 
The  regiment  was  one  of  new  recruits,  and 
the  absence  of  some  of  its  officers  devolved 
upon  others  much  extra  service,  especially 
10 


110  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

in  the  heavy  picket  duty  that  the  post  re 
quired.  For  a  time  the  newly-enlisted  ser 
geant  had  almost  the  entire  instruction  of 
his  company,  then  stationed  on  the  Knobly 
mountain,  two  miles  from  camp.  As  fidelity 
in  small  things,  and  the  habit  of  prompt  and 
implicit  obedience  are  prime  qualities  in  a 
soldier,  his  method  of  training  furnishes  a 
good  illustration  of  both. 

"  I  am  doing  the  best  I  can  to  teach  the 
men  all  things  in  the  most  exact  manner.  I 
drill  them  five  hours  daily. 

"  It  is  hard  work  to  manage  some  of  the 
men  ;  that  is,  they  are  old  and  want  reasons 
for  everything.  If  I  say  *  you  must  remove 
the  paper  from  the  cartridge  before  loading/ 
some  one  says,  '  I  never  load  that  way,  I 
shan't  do  it.'  'Sir  !  put  that  ball  in  without 
the  paper.7  *  Why  ?'  *  Because  I  tell  you 
to  ;' — and  at  last,  in  goes  the  ball. 

"  '  Company,  fall  in  for  drill  f  '  Where 
are  we  going  ?'  '  Never  mind  where  you  are 
going,  fall  in,'  say  I.  And  though  I  often 
have  to  repeat  orders,  and  repeat  again,  I 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  Ill 

never  had  a  man  refuse  to  obey,  and  always 
after  he  has  obeyed  I  tell  him  all  I  can  to 
explain  his  trouble.  But  they  are  learning 
rapidly  to  obey  promptly.  At  night  I  al 
ways  post  the  Camp  Guard.  I  have  the 
countersign  and  go  round  to  each  sentry 
and  give  him  full  instructions,  and  often  if  I 
wake  up  at  two  or  three  o'clock,  I  go  round 
and  see  how  things  are. 

"The  Captain,  or  1st  Lieutenant  acting 
captain  in  command,  puts  a  great  deal  of  con 
fidence  in  me ;  he  never  drills  the  men  nor 
attends  to^Guard  mounting.  All  I  do  is  to 
try  and  do  my  duty  to  the  fullest  extent,  in 
hope  that  all  will  go  well.77 

With  him  the  daily  drill  was  never  a 
matter  of  mere  regulation  routine,  but,  ap 
preciating  its  importance,  he  sought  in  this, 
as  in  every  thing  he  undertook,  the  highest 
attainable  excellence.  "I  saw  the  dress- 
parade  of  the  Twenty-third  Illinois,  Col. 
Mulligan's  Irish  Brigade,  and  they  equal 
the  Seventh  New  York.  It  roused  me  a 
good  deal,  and  so  I  put  Company  A  through 


112  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

the  next  time  ;  for  two  hours  I  kept  them  in 
a  regular  hard  drill.  It  is  quite  amusing 
to  hear  the  men  talk  :  '  Sergeant,  if  you  drill 
us  much  longer,  we  shall  beat  the  regiment/ 
etc. ;  '  Sergeant,  I  never  was  drilled  before 
I  saw  you.7  The  other  companies  are  under 
drill-masters,  lieutenants,  etc.,  from  Mulli 
gan's  Brigade,  so  it  is  quite  a  race  for  me  to 
see  whether  Company  A,  in  spite  of  all  its 
hard  guard  duties,  can  not  beat  the  other 
companies  when  again  we  meet." 

This  laudable  ambition  soon  had  its  re 
ward.  "  Yesterday  was  Company  A's  first 
appearance  on  dress-parade,  and  I  have  the 
satisfaction  of  learning  from  many  sources 
that,  in  all  respects, '  we 7  were  equal  to  the 
other  companies,  and  that  in  our  'order 
arms 7  we  surpassed  the  whole.  I  do  not 
tell  this  to  boast,  but  because  it  is  a  great 
gratification  to  me  to  know  that,  if  I  am 
now  sick,  Company  A  first  got  some  good 
from  me. 

"  Do  not,  by  any  means,  imagine  that,  in 
three  weeks  or  three  years,  I  am  to  be  made 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  113 

second  lieutenant  in  this  company.  All  the 
other  sergeants  have  prior  claims,  for  their 
aid  in  recruiting  and  because  they  are  from 
the  regiment's  native  county.  I  oily  desire 
to  do  my  full  duty,  whether  as  sergeant, 
drill-master,  or  whatever  position  I  may  oc 
cupy.  I  have  not  asked  for  promotion,  nor 
talked  of  it,  either  to  my  officers  or  fellow 
sergeants.'7 

The  benefits  of  this  persevering  drill- 
work  soon  appeared  in  his  ready  handling 
of  the  company  upon  a  night-alarm,  in  the 
absence  of  the  captain  and  other  officers. 
"Night  before  last  we  had  an  alarm  in 
camp.  I  went  to  the  sentry  with  Sergeant 
C.,  and  found  that  he  had  fired  at  a  man 
who  was  skulking  round  and  refused  to 
answer  the  challenge.  C.  and  I  started 
down  the  hill  and  searched  the  bushes,  but 
found  no  one.  I  went  back  and  reported. 
Lieut.  D.  turned  out  the  guard,  and  left  the 
company  in  my  care.  I  formed  company, 
loaded,  fixed  bayonets,  and  then  made  them 
'  mark  time/  to  keep  warm,  and  to  cool  them 
10* 


114  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

off.  By  the  time  D.  returned,  I  had  a  cool 
and  ready  company.  He  took  half,  and  left 
me  in  charge  of  the  rest  and  of  the  camp, 
the  men  to  lie  in  ranks  just  under  the  hill. 
After  scouting  for  some  two  hours,  we 
returned  to  our  bunks.  I  presume  that  some 
bushwackers  were  '  feeling  us/  to  see  how 
quickly  we  could  turn  out." 

A  strong  mark  of  the  confidence  of  his 
superior  officers  in  his  courage,  fidelity,  and 
discretion,  was  given  in  the  incident  which 
is  here  described  in  his  own  words  : — 

"  One  misty,  rainy  morning,  as  I  was  sit 
ting  in  my  tent,  just  after  breakfast,  the  flap 
was  unceremoniously  thrown  open,  and  Ma 
jor  P.,  our  captain,  called  out, '  Halloa,  Ser 
geant  !  Why  haven't  you  reported  at  the 
colonel's  headquarters  ? ' 

" '  Because  I  was  not  ordered  to  do  so.' 
I  was  expecting  some  joke  from  the  major, 
as  is  his  habit. 

u '  Well,  go  up  and  report  at  once ;  you 
are  to  go  to  Cumberland/ 

"I  went  up,  and  the  colonel  said,  l  Ser- 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  115 

geant,  YOU  are  to  go  to  Cumberland  with 
the  rebel  captain.  Have  you  a  good  revolv 
er?" 

" '  Yes,  sir/ 

"  '  Go  to  your  quarters  and  get  ready ; 
then  report  here/ 

"I  went  to  the  carall  and  got  two 
horses,  and  then  to  the  provost  headquarters 
and  found  the  captain.  He  was  a  fine  look 
ing  fellow,  about  thirty,  strong,  well  built, 
and  very  pleasant. 

" '  Captain,  I  am  to  take  you  to  Cumber 
land  ;  your  horse  is  waiting  now.7 

" '  Is  any  one  going  beside  yourself? 7 

" '  No,  sir  ;  I  am  detailed  to  take  you  to 
Cumberland.  Here  is  rny  order  :  '  Sergeant 
Thompson  will  proceed  to  Cumberland  on 
horseback,  and  deliver  to  General  Kelly  the 
person  of  Moses  O'Brien,  a  deserter  from 
the  rebel  service/  etc.  Captain,  if  you  go 
with  me  quietly,  and  make  no  attempt  to 
escape,  I  will  do  well  by  you  ;  but,  if  I  see 
the  least  motion,  a  quickening  of  the  pace 
of  your  horse,  *)r  any  thing  that  looks  like 


116  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

an  attempt  to  escape,  I  shall  shoot  you  at 
once.  You  see,  here  is  my  loaded  Colt's  ; 
you  are  unarmed,  and  it  will  be  strange  if  I 
can't  put  one  of  the  six  balls  through  you 
before  you  get  off/ 

"  '  Very  well,  sir.  I  shall  go  quietly,  for  I 
have  no  desire  to  escape.7 

"  As  my  prisoner  was  buckling  on  his 
spurs,  I  suggested  that  I  would  like  to  wear 
one  myself,  whereupon  he  at  once  unbuckled 
and  I  put  the  spur  on.  We  then  mounted, 
and  were  off. 

"  *  Hope  you  will  come  back  safely,  Ser 
geant,"  cried  some  one. 

"M  will.7 

"  I  had  no  more  idea  of  the  road  than 
you  have  •  but  I  knew  it  could  not  diverge 
much  from  the  railroad.  The  distance  was 
about  twenty-four  miles  or  less  ;  the  road, 
the  first  half,  was  awful — mud,  rocks,  rivers 
to  ford,  the  Potomac,  the  water  nearly  to 
my  feet.  We  came  soon  to  a  gate,  and  I 
suggested  that  the  captain  might  dismount 
and  open  it,  as  my  orders  were  strict. 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  117 

"  For  a  time  we  rode  in  silence,  and  then, 
as  the  captain  seemed  pleasant,  I  entered 
into  conversation,  and  he  gave  me  much 
information  in  regard  to  rebeldom  and  his 
own  adventures. 

"He  had  been  with  Ashby,  but  lately 
belonged  to  the  Seventeenth  Battalion  cav 
alry.  He  deserted  from  Harper's  Ferry,  by 
means  of  a  sick-furlough.  I  had  very  inter 
esting  conversation  all  along,  keeping  my 
eye  on  him.  At  about  noon  we  came  to 
Rawlings,  and  as  we  approached  a  neat 
farm-house,  I  proposed  dining.  The  captain 
said  he  had  no  money,  but  I  told  him  that  it 
was  by  my  invitation.  We  had  quite  a  fine 
farm-dinner  for  twenty-five  cents  each.  I 
said  nothing  of  our  relative  position,  and  they 
did  not  suspect  my  secesh,  though  the  grey- 
back  and  gilt  braid  was  before  them. 

"  We  then  mounted  and  rode  on  through 
a  much  better  country  and  a  better  road, 
along  the  hillside.  We  passed  some  fine 
farms  on  the  plains,  mostly  cultivated  though 
not  very  thoroughly,  as  farming  seems  to  be 


118  THE  SERGEANTS  NEk.  ORIAL. 

at  a  discount  here.  As  soon  as  harvest  is 
over,  the  men  go  hunting  and  let  the  farms 
rot  till  spring,  hence,  there  is  no  advance  or 
improvement.  Of  course  there  are  excep 
tions,  and  I  saw  a  few  good  farms  and 
houses.  At  last  we  neared  the  railroad,  and 
a  mountain  seemed  to  close  up  all  outlets, 
but  the  road  went  one  side  and  the  railroad 
the  other.  Here  we  found  a  picket,  the  out 
post  from  Cumberland,  and  over  the  hill,  or 
rather  from  the  top  of  the  hill  we  saw  Cum 
berland,  about  a  mile  off. 

"  I  lent  the  captain  my  rubber  coat  in 
order  to  hide  the  heavy  gilt  braid  on  his 
grey-back  coat.  So  pulling  on  his  new 
acquisition,  he  rode  into  the  town  without 
drawing  a  crowd.  We  went  at  once  to 
Kelly's  headquarters,  I  knowing  full  well 
where  they  were,  and  tying  our  animals,  I 
marched  my  charge  up  stairs  and  presented 
him.  It  seems  that  we  came  at  just  the 
time  for  good  luck  to  the  captain,  if  his 
assertions  were  true,  for  after  a  half  hour's 
talk  and  a  few  questions  as  to  his  whence 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  119 

and  whittiei  and  wherefore,  the  General 
allowed  him  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
and  go  in  peace.  We  took  rooms  together 
at  the  St.  Nicholas,  and  then  a  good  supper  ; 
after  which,  the  sergeant  swelled  round  the 
hotel,  talking  with  his  old  friends.  He 
thought  of  former  days  when  he  was  only  a 
private  in  that  hotel,  but  now  an  exalted 
sergeant,  ahem ! 

"  The  next  morning  after  breakfast,  I 
attended  to  some  few  errands,  paid  my  bill, 
received  my  orders  and  pass  from  the  Gen 
eral,  said  good-bye  to  my  captain,  got  my 
horse  and  was  off  at  ten  o'clock.  I  strapped 
my  coat  to  the  saddle  and  put  my  spur  to 
the  horse,  and  made  some  good  time  on  the 
level  ground. 

"  I  reached  camp  in  safety  at  about  five 
o'clock ;  gave  the  return  order  to  Colonel 
James,  put  up  my  *  animal/  returning  once 
more  to  the  bosom  of  my  family  and  the 
embraces  of  our  mess.  The  captain's  spur 
now  mine,  shall  be  duly  preserved  and  adorn 
my  future  home.  My  future  wife,  whoever 


120  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

she  may  be,  shall  have  the  pleasure  of  dust 
ing  it  and  thinking  on  the  perils  of  a  twenty- 
three-mile  ride  with  a  stout  rebel  deserter." 

From  the  manner  in  which  he  fulfilled 
this  trust,  I  was  not  surprised  to  hear  a  cap 
tain  in  his  regiment  say,  "  the  eye  of  his  com 
manding  officer  was  upon  him,  and  he  was  des 
ignated  for  promotion  to  the  first  vacancy." 
But  it  was  grateful  to  hear  from  the  lips  of 
his  colonel,  as  we  stood  together  beside 
his  silent  form,  "  Your  son  was  a  complete 
soldier,  and  a  model  gentleman.  I  had  al 
ready  made  out  his  commission  as  lieuten 
ant.7'7 

Indeed  his  young  reputation  had  extended 
beyond  his  own  camp.  A  friend  writes  : 
"  My  brother,  Gen.  J.  J.  Bartlett,  had  upon 
inquiry  become  so  favorably  acquainted 
with  your  son's  character  and  standing  in 
the  army,  that  he  had  determined  to  offer 
him  a  position  on  his  staff,  in  case  of  a 
vacancy  expected."  And  he  adds,  "you 
have  such  a  precious  bequest  in  the  Chris 
tian  character  and  public  services  of  a  child, 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.          121 

it  almost  touches  the  condolence  with  thanks 
giving,  that  in  obedience  to  God's  and  our 
country's  call  for  a  contribution,  you  had  so 
much  to  give.'7  * 

*  Kev.  W.  A.  Bartlett,  of  Brooklyn. 
11 


XVII. 


THE  tactical  drill,  while  of  the  first  con- 
L  sequence  in  the  mind  of  an  officer,  by  no 
means  completes  the  round  of  his  daily 
duties  in  the  camp.  The  health  and  com 
fort,  the  amusement  and  instruction  of  the 
men,  will  engage  much  of  his  attention. 
And  it  is  in  the  e very-day  life  of  the  soldier, 
rather  than  upon  the  battle-field,  that  one 
sees  the  best  examples  of  patient  courage 
and  of  personal  fidelity,  The  good  soldier 
learns  to  make  light  of  his  privations,  and 
even  to  extract  pleasure  from  them  ;  and 
the  faithful  officer  will  bring  all  the  resour 
ces  of  his  mind  and  the  advantages  of  his 
education  to  bear  upon  the  physical,  social 
and  moral  improvement  of  his  men. 

(122) 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL  123 

At  first  the  non-commissioned  officers  of 
Company  A  tented  together,  thus  securing 
for  themselves  some  extra  comforts,  and  en 
joying  much  pleasurable  intercourse.  "Five 
such  abolition,  slavery-hating,  vigorous-pro- 
secution-of-the-war  fellows  you  never  saw 
in  any  one  space,  ten  by  ten."  Their  even 
ings-were  given  to  studies  and  discussions 
in  science,  literature  and  economics ; — geolo 
gy  and  history  being  pursued  in  the  way 
of  regular  recitations. 

"  We  have  just  closed  our  debate,  a  very 
interesting  and  I  think  profitable  one  ;  the 
common  question  of  George  Washington 
and  Columbus — which  deserves  the  most 
praise.  It  rubs  up  our  patriotism  and  acts 
as  a  general  improvement.  We  always  end 
with  a  critique  by  some  one  member,  and 
that  seems  to  me  to  be  a  good  plan. 

"  Altogether,  our  boys  speak  well,  and  arc 
improving  rapidly.  It  is  far  better  than 
cards  or  mere  talk.  We  debate  some  three 
times  a  week.7' 

This  practice  Sergeant  T.  kept  up  after 


1 24  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

the  mess  above  referred  to  was  disbanded, 
and  the  non-commissioned  officers  were  dis 
tributed  into  tents  with  the  men. 

Indeed  it  was  under  this  arrangement,  in 
a  Sibley  tent  with  twelve  privates,  that  he 
best  showed  his  aptitude  for  a  soldier's  life. 
His  habits  of  cleanliness  and  neatness  led 
him  to  insist  upon  the  dally  use  of  wash- 
towel,  comb,  and  tooth-brush  for  the  person, 
as  much  as  upon  oil  and  emery  for  the  gun. 
His  ingenuity  devised  many  contrivances 
for  the  compact  and  orderly  arrangement  of 
equipage  and  utensils,  and  multiplied  the 
comforts  and  enjoyments  of  the  men.  Said 
one  of  them,  himself  a  mechanic,  "  The  ser 
geant  was  always  proposing  some  new  ideas 
for  our  comfort ;  he  would  draw  a  plan,  and 
teach  us  how  to  make  this  and  that  [point 
ing  to  various  racks,  etc.  in  the  tent],  so  that 
he  cared  for  us  like  a  brother."  Said  an 
other,  "  We  used  to  watch  for  him  to  come 
in,  he  had  such  a  pleasant  way  with  him  ; 
he  always  had  a  kind  word  for  every  one 
in  the  tent."  And  they  all  testified,  "In 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  125 

all  the  time  lie  was  with  us,  we  never  knew 
him  to  get  angry,  we  never  heard  from  him 
an  uncouth  expression,  nor  saw  in  him  any 
improper  or  ungentlcmanly  action.77 

To  divert  the  men  from  cards,  he  pro 
posed  making  a  set  of  chess-men,  a  large 
part  of  which  he  carved  with  his  own  knife. 
His  Sibley  tent  with  thirteen  inmates,  poor 
ly  lighted  by  day  or  night,  with  a  stove  in 
the  center  occupying  the  place  of  a  table, 
afforded  much  smaller  accommodations  for 
reading  and  writing  than  the  old  wall  tent 
for  five.  But  he  maintained  in  it  order, 
comfort,  and  good  cheer. 

"  We  play  chess  a  good  deal  now,  having 
made  a  set  of  men  and  a  board.  It  is  very 
pleasant,  and  a  good  change  from  whist  or 
euchre.  We  have  a  rule  to  stop  all  games 
if  any  quarrel  arises,  as  sometimes  cannot 
well  be  avoided ;  —  I  mean  a  quarrel  in 
words,  but  this  is  not  at  all  frequent." 

He  kept  up  as  much  as  possible  his  own 
literary  habits  and  tastes.  His  daily  mail 
usually  exceeded  that  of  any  one  in  the  regi- 


126  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

mcnt.  As  he  was  well  supplied  with  books 
and  newspapers,  Tent  No.  4  became  the  cir 
culating  library  of  the  company. 

His  boxes  of  creature-comforts  sent  from 
home,  were  shared  with  his  tent-mates  as 
freely  as  if  they  had  been  mess-officers. 

"  This  is  our  Christmas  eve,  and  yours, 
too.  To-day  my  box  came,  and  it  was  equal 
to  any  one  of  Professor  Hermann's  perform 
ances  to  unpack  it,  and  reveal  article  after 
article  till  my  whole  bunk  was  covered,  and 
then  to  end  by  removing  a  whole  library 
from  the  bottom — all  from  one  wee  box. 
Everything  was  in  prime  order  ;  it  could 
not  have  been  opened  for.  inspection  •  and 
to  repack  it — why,  I  could  only  lay  back 
half  of  the  things !  The  books  are  just  the 
ones  for  Tent  No.  4.  "We  shall  spend  much 
time  in  reading  ;  indeed  we  are  already  at 
work.  The  drawing  materials  are  all  useful, 
and  I  will  improve,  if  I  can."  By  help  of  the 
timely  box,  and  a  few  extra  purchases  from 
a  distant  farm-house,  the  Christmas  festival 
was  kept  with  even  greater  gusto  than 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  127 

around  the  well-spread  family  heard.  The 
tent  dinner  was  served  upon  the  top  of  his 
bunk,  which  was  covered  with  newspapers 
in  lieu  of  a  cloth. 

"  Of  course  we  did  not  eat  in  silence,  but 
joke  followed  joke,  and  we  had  a  jovial  old 
time.  No  liquor  on  the  table.  After  our 
dinner  was  over,  we  called  on  one  another 
for  toasts  and  speeches,  as  we  sat  around 
the  stove  smoking  our  cigars  and  pipes,  and 
those  at  home  were  by  no  means  forgotten. 
I  consulted  my  album,  to  see  how  you  all 
looked.  Altogether,  we  had  a  very  merry 
time." 

In  the  same  cheerful  vein  he  writes  to  a 
sister  :  "  I  hope  you  will  enjoy  the  skating, 
though  we  don't  want  much  more  cold  here  ; 
for  when  the  wind  blows  and  rattles  the 
tent  as  though  it  would  pull  it  up,  and  it  is 
freezing  cold,  then  I  think  a  brick  house  and 
a  good  furnace,  with  Bridget  to  put  on  the 
coal,  might  be  warmer  ;  but  I  don't  believe 
that  any  brick  house  contains  a  nicer  family 
of  thirteen  than  you  might  find  in  our  white 


128  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

tent  of  an  evening.  It  is  so  cold  to-night 
that  I  can  hardly  write  ;  it  rains  outside, 
and  is  dreary,  cold.  Of  course  I  think  of 
you  all  at  home,  but  I  do  not  feel  home-sick 
at  all.  I  am  too  much  in  for  it  now. 

"  We  are  very  cozy  in  our  quarters.  My 
men  have  built  me  a  fine  bunk.  In  place  of 
a  feather  bed,  I  have  two  thicknesses  of  news 
paper  on  the  boards  !  I  sleep  very  soundly, 
and  am  never  troubled  with  lameness." 

While  he  was  thus  contented  and  cheery 
in  his  personal  feelings,  he  studied  to  allay 
discontent  among  others,  and  also  to  remove 
its  causes.  After  a  serious  sickness, he  writes : 

"  I  can  only  lay  my  illness  to  poor  cook 
ing,  half-cooked  beans,  and  once  our  meat 
was  tainted  a  little.  It  is  a  shame  that 
when  Uncle  Sam  gives  us  such  abundant 
rations,  and  of  good  quality,  we  have  them 
ruined  by  the  cooks.  I  am  doing  all  in  my 
power  to  have  more  carB  given  to  these  mat 
ters,  but  cannot  say  much  ;  for  a  sergeant 
should  set  a  good  example  to  the  men  by 
not  grumbling." 


XVIII. 

TTIS  Christian  character  was  never  demon- 
*-  strative.  With  him  religion  did  not  run 
much  to  the  tongue.  To  his  parents,  indeed, 
he  had  sometimes  unveiled  the  recesses  of 
his  soul-life  with  a  freedom  that  he  would 
use  with  no  others  ;  and  his  very  question 
ings  concerning  points  of  personal  expe 
rience,  and  his  conflicts  with  innermost 
temptations,  were  both  in  manner  and  in 
subject-matter  imperative  evidences  -of  his 
sincere  and  principled  piety. 

In  illustration  of  the  prayerful  habit  of 
his  mind,  the  following  paragraph  from  a 
composition  upon  early  friendships,  written 
while  he  was  a  member  of  Phillips  Academy, 
is  here  appropriate  : 

"  While  we  are  choosing  from  our  corn- 
Cm) 


130  THE  SERGEANT'S 

pardons  those  best  adapted  both  to  sympa 
thize  and  to  rejoice  with  us,  let  us  not  for 
get  that  there  is  a  Friend  above  all  others, 
with  whom  a  true  friendship  may  and  should 
be  formed  by  all.  Knowing  that  this  friend 
ship  is  purer,  more  beautiful  and  lasting 
than  any  that  can  be  formed  with  earthly 
friends,  that  this  love  is  without  height  or 
depth — unchanged  as  the  long  ages  of  eter 
nity  roll  on — forget  not  thy  Creator  in  the 
days  of  thy  youth.77 

He  had  learned  to  trust  in  Jesus  as  a 
Friend.  I  see  him  now,  as  he  stood  with 
me  alone  in  his  chamber  strapping  his  knap, 
sack  for  his  journey  to  Wheeling — the  part 
ing  interview.  The  day  had  been  given  to 
his  outfit.  "  Well,  John/7  I  said,  "  I  believe 
I  have  procured  everything  that  you  will 
need.  But  there  is  one  thing  that  you  alone 
can  care  for.  You  are  going  upon  a  very 
serious  business,  with  temptations  and  dan 
gers,  perhaps  sickness  and  death  before  you. 
You  must  keep  near  to  Christ,  my  son,  in 
prayer  ;  never  forget  that.7* 


TITS  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.          131 

Pausing  for  a  moment  in  his  preparations, 
he  turned  his  large  loving  eyes  full  upon  me, 
looked  his  whole  soul  into  mine,  and  an 
swered,  "  Father,  I  think  I'm  all  right  there" 
His  religious  habit  was  so  reticent,  so 
thoughtful,  so  sincere,  that  those  few  words 
expressed  to  me  his  whole  inner  life. 

The  well-thumbed  Testament  and  knap 
sack  manual  for  devotion,  among  his  effects, 
bear  witness  to  his  fidelity  in  keeping  him 
self  "  all  right  there  ;"  and  the  testimony 
borne  by  all  to  the  pureness  of  his  speech 
and  manners,  and  to  the  Christian  elevation 
of  his  whole  life,  proves  how  thoroughly  he 
was  right  within. 

He  deeply  deplored  the  lack  of  a  proper 
religious  element  in  the  organization  of  the 
regiment.  Alluding  to  the  ordination  of  a 
chaplain  in  the  Broad  way  Tabernacle  Church, 
he  writes  to  his  father  : 

"  I  hope  in  your  charge  to  the  chaplain 
you  gave  him  some  good  advice.  Ours  is  a 
Universalist,  and  I  do  not  think  much  of 
him.  As  far  as  I  can  see  he  does  not  under- 


132  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

stand  the  duties  of  a  minister,  for  what  is  a 
chaplain  but  a  minister,  and  the  regiment 
his  congregation?  If  he  has  a  meeting  on 
Sunday  and  one  on  Wednesday,  and  attends 
to  a  funeral  once  a  week,  is  he  doing  his 
duty  as  a  Christian  ? 

"  There  is  an  immense  amount  of  work  for 
a  minister  in  our  regiment ;  of  course  I  don't 
mean  simply  work  to  convert  or  make  a 
Christian  of  every  man,  but  work  to  check 
profaneness,  vulgarity,  gambling,  intemper 
ance,  though  of  the  last  two  there  is  very 
little. 

"  I  wish  we  had  a  man  of  good  sense  and 
real  interest  in  his  calling.  Our  chaplain  is 
kind  enough  ; — by  chance  I  know  him,  and 
since  my  sickness  he  inquires  for  my  state 
of  health  ;— but  speak  to  the  men,  to  put  in 
a  good  word  in  a  pleasant  and  appropriate 
manner,  never — in  our  company  at  least." 

Again  he  makes  this  memorandum  with 
regard  to  religious  privations  in  the  camp. 

"  One  of  the  worst  evils  of  the  army  is  the 
loss  of  the  Sabbath  day.  To-day  I  have 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.          133 

worked  harder  than  I  ever  did  on  a  week 
day  at  home.  The  men  have  been  complain 
ing  for  some  days  of  want  of  full  rations, 
good  cooking,  etc.  Our  rations  are  drawn 
for  fiVe  days,  except  bread  and  meat  which 
come  daily.  Last  evening  the  Captain  de 
cided  to  divide  the  company  into  four  messes 
of  twenty-four  each.  So  all  last  evening  we 
worked  (we  sergeants)  till  eleven,  forming 
the  messes,  and  only  seemed  to  make  worse 
messes  of  the  whole.  Then  this  Sunday 
morning  we  worked  until  inspection  at  nine, 
in  dealing  out  rations,  drawing  for  pots  and 
pans,  etc. ;  and  then  after  inspection  till  two 
o'clock  forming  the  messes  and  dealing  ra 
tions. 

"  As  for  Sunday  services,  our  chaplain  is  a 
Universalist,  and  I  never  go  to  any  of  his 
preachings.  I  think  a  service  is  rare,  how 
ever,  not  more  than  once  a  week,  if  that.  I 
am  very  sorry  that  he  happens  to  be  of 
that  persuasion  ;  it  is  quite  a  loss  to  me,  and 
he  does  our  men  no  good.  But  this  can  only 
be  laid  to  the  account  of  privations  and  losses 
12 


134  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

suffered  by  the  soldier."  This  chaplain  soon 
resigned  his  post. 

In  minor  morals  the  sergeant  maintained 
a  proper  walk  amid  all  the  temptations  to 
laxity  which  abound  in  camp  life.  He  "made 
decency  of  speech  and  deportment  indispens 
able  to  a  personal  friendship.  He  did  re 
lapse,  however,  into  the  use  of  tobacco  :  and 
in  writing  jocosely  to  his  father  to  purchase 
him  cigars  of  a  certain  brand,  he  says  : 

"  I  shall  not  argue  the  tobacco  question, 
because  we  both  agree  to  a  great  extent ; 
but  you  are  not  in  camp.  I  will  urge  nothing 
in  its  favor  ;  simply  saying  that  if  smoke  one 
does,  certainly  the  better  the  tobacco  the 
better  for  the  smoker  ;  and  nothing  extra 
can  be  obtained  in  Virginia — only  poor  stuff, 
at  sutlers'  prices." 

Not  wishing,  however,  to  burden  the  pa 
ternal  conscience  with  complicity  in  this 
indulgence,  he  insisted  that  it  should  be 
charged  to  his  private  account !  Indeed,  he 
was  minutely  exact  in  his  personal  expenses  ; 
careful  to  avoid  debts  or  pecuniary  obliga- 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  135 

tions  to  others  ;  prompt  and  honorable  in 
meeting  his  dues  for  camp  extras,  and 
thoughtful  and  liberal  in  remembering  the 
birth-days  and  festal-days  at  home,  by  remit 
tances  from  his  slender  wages.  The  very 
last  line  he  wrote  ivas  in  acknowledgment 
of  a  box  of  groceries  and  a  remittance  of 
postage  currency.  Learning  that  all  his  own 
remittances  had  been  deposited  in  bank  to 
his  credit,  he  says  :  "  I  do  not  like  to  use 
money  of  yours.  But  you  have  the  advan 
tage  of  me.  Only  promise  that  if  ever  you 
are  '  short/  you  will  draw  or.  me.'7  He  that 
is  faithful  in  that  which  is  least,  is  faithful 
also  in  much. 


XIX. 

THE  sergeant  had  a  soldier's  ambition  to 
-  prove  his  sword.  "  Our  Colonel  is  a 
college  graduate,  perfect  in  drill  and  ability 
to  teach  others.  I  am  in  Company  A,  the 
first  in  rank  and  material.  And  although 
an  entire  stranger  at  first,  I  think  now  that 
I  have  many  good  friends.  Though  I  have 
done  no  fighting,  yet  is  it  not  share  and 
share  alike  to  those  who  fight  and  those 
guarding  the  stuff  ?  We  may  fight  yet .... 
I  am  quite  contented  and  never  for  a  moment 
regret  enlisting.'7 

His  letters  uniformly  breathe  this  spirit 
of  personal  contentment,  with  a  burning  zeal 
for  more  vigorous  action.  He  writes  to  a 

(136) 


THE  SERGEANT'S  M. VMORIAL.  137 

sister  :  "  I  should  like  to  go  to  some  of  the 
Philharmonics  this  winter  ; — but  I  don't 
care,  I  want  to  see  an  end  to  this  war  before 
I  attend  to  music,  or  at  least  to  see  some 
service.  At  present,  our  brass  band  and 
drum  corps  satisfy  me." 

"  The  wind,  rain  and  hail  last  night,  did 
some  damage  to  our  tent,  by  pulling  up  tent 
pins,  etc.  The  tent  nearly  came  down,  and 
the  wind  whistled  in  and  out  all  night  ;  but 
we  had  a  jolly  time  putting  things  to  rights 
and  making  all  secure.  We  have  no  stoves 
as  yet  ;  and  during  the  clear  moonlight 
nights  we  should  freeze,  were  it  not  for  our 
overcoats  and  blankets.  I  was  fortunate 
in  drawing  a  very  heavy  blanket  worth 
two  like  the  old  22d. 

"  We  shall  be  glad  when  we  are  fairly  in 
our  winter  quarters  and  have  our  stoves. 

"  But  I  am  enjoying  myself  and  am  not 
sorry  at  all  that  I  enlisted.  Those  who  are 
at  home  in  warm  houses  with  every  luxury, 
or  even  plain  comforts,  do  not  know  at  all 
how  rough  camp  life  is.  Whenever  you  can 
12* 


138  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

do  anything  for  any  part  of  the  army,  don't 
begrudge  it.  Don't  let  the  church  hold  back 
lest  labor  should  be  wasted. 

"  But  I  must  not  write  so,  lest  you  should 
think  me  horne-sick,  when  I  am  not." 

As  weeks  wore  away  in  camp  at  New 
Creek,  he  grew  more  and  more  impatient 
for  an  active  participation  in  the  war  ;  and 
like  many  a  private  soldier,  he  seemed  to 
have  a  better  grasp  of  the  situation  than 
some  commanding  generals. 

"  As  to  war  and  politics,  I  am  glad  that 
little  '  Rapid'*  is  so  fairly  squelched.  Give 
us  leaders  that  will  fight ;  we  want  men  to 
march  us  on,  to  Richmond.  For  the  love  of 
country,  don't  make  our  great  and  noble 
army  guard  railroads.  Regiments  spoil  for 
want  of  work.  All  our  boys  want  to  ad 
vance,  fight,  end  the  war  and  return  home. 
And  this  is  so  everywhere.  We  all  need 
fighting  officers.  Within  a  week  this  post 
has  been  thoroughly  reinforced.  Last  week 

*  An  army  nickname  ^iven  on  the  principle  Lucus  a  non  lu- 
cendo. 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  139 

we  had  but  about  a  3,500  force,  to-day  nearly 
12,000.  These  are  mainly  from  Ohio  and 
Virginia,  ours  being  the  only  N.  Y.  S.  V. 
We  have  artillery,  three  batteries  ;  cavalry  ? 
a  battalion  and  two  companies ;  infantry, 
ten  regiments,  and  more  coming.  Besides 
this,  a  very  good  fort  nearly  completed.  So 
this  place  is  well  occupied.  You  can  hardly 
imagine  the  life  of  so  many  camps. 

"  This  morning  I  went  as  sergeant  of  the 
day,  with  Capt.  P.,  officer  of  the  day,  to  visit 
the  pickets,  taking  the  countersign  and  Vari 
ous  instructions.  We  rode  in  four  hours, 
including  stops,  upwards  of  twenty  miles, 
whicli  on  these  roads  and  by-paths  is  pretty 
good  ;  you  would  have  thought  so,  had  you 
seen  us  gallop ;  spurs .  in  to  the  hub  and 
horses  on  a  dead  run  wherever  the  road 
would  in  any  way  permit.  P.  is  the  old  one 
himself  to  ride,  and  I  kept  close  to  him  :  his 
horse  was  used  up,  and  mine  lost  a  shoe  be 
fore  we  returned  to  dinner.  For  this  after 
noon  we  have  fourteen  miles  more  to  visit 
pickets,  and  then  every  camp  in  place  must 


140  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

be  inspected.  To-night  every  picket  must 
be  visited  again,  making  upwards  of  seventy 
miles  riding.  All  this  is  daily  attended  to 
by  some  officer  in  turn." 

This  was  a  sketch  of  army  life  addressed 
to  a  classmate  at  yale.  In  a  home-letter  of 
about  the  same  date,  he  says  : 

"  If  any  of  you  thought  we  had  hard  times 
and  made  sacrifices  last  summer,  what  would 
you  say  now  ?  I  have  had  far  harder  times 
than  the  hardest  in  the  22d,  and  am  still 
far  from  the  worst.  But  I  expected  it,  and 
can  stand  more,  if  we  can  only  do  some  good  ; 
but  this  everlasting  guarding  of  the  railroad 
in  a  rebel  state  is  a  humbug.  Why  not 
make  ours  the  fighting  and  the  Southern  the 
guarding  army  ?  What  is  the  use  of  making 
this  rebel  road  our  base  of  operations,  and 
keeping  25,000  men  to  guard  it  ?  Let  the 
secesh  destroy  the  road,  if  Maryland  can't 
defend  it.  Let  our  army  go  to  Richmond, 
let  us  form  a  line  of  operations  from  East 
Tennessee  to  Port  Royal,  only  200  miles, 
and  fio;ht  them  on  both  sides.  Let  the  Home 


THE  SEE  GEANTS  MEMORIAL.  141 

Guards  protect  home  and  railroads.  We 
are  tired  of  guard-duty." 

This  guard-duty,  however,  was  not  always 
a  quiet  routine. 

"  By  telegraph  from  Gen.  Kelly  we  are 
under  orders  to  be  ready  at  a  moment  to 
march  or  fight.  All  may  be  mere  false 
alarms,  or  we  may  soon  fight  here  or  near 
Cumberland.  The  regiment  is  t  spoiling  for 
a  fight7  and  will,  I. think,  fight  well.  Our 
men  have  left  their  farms  and  business  to 
coine  and  put  an  end  to  this  war  and  then 
go  home  to  live  in  peace ;  and  when  the  time 
comes  to  strike  a  blow,  it  will  be  a  i  mighty 
hard  one/  as  the  boys  say." 

This  alarm  was  succeeded  by  a  brush  with 
Imboden,  in  which  a  part  of  the  106th  were 
engaged. 

"  On  Saturday  a  force  consisting  of  cavalry 
and  artillery  and  Mulligan's  infantry  went 
out  to  attend  to  some  rebels.  Fifty-six  miles 
from  camp  they  found  some  eight  hundred 
secesh.  These  drew  up  in  the  valley  or  pass, 
and  seemed  determined  to  stand.  A  few 


142  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

shells  routed  them,  but  the  fight  lasted  about 
four  hours.  The  rebels  gave  us  several  vol 
leys  and  then  the  shells  drove  them  to  the 
hills,  and  as  they  ran  up  the  mountains  our 
guns  were  depressed  even  till  holes  were 
dug  to  sink  the  trails.  We  killed  some  forty 
or  fifty,  captured  nearly  forty — brought  in 
to  Cumberland — and  took  four  hundred  hogs 
and  some  cattle,  all  safely  brought  in.  Our 
loss  only  three  wounded." 

Such  turnouts,  he  writes,  "  frighten  some, 
and  excite  others,  and  do  good  to  all.  If 
we  could  only  have  an  advance,  and  put  an 
end  to  Stonewall  I" 

That  this  was  not  mere  boyish  bravado, 
is  evident  from  the  deliberation  with  which 
he  had  counted  the  cost.  In  a  familiar  jour 
nal  to  a  sister,  he  incidentally  reveals  his 
forecasting  of  death  : 

"  There  is  a  funeral  just  starting  from  Col. 
Mulligan's  regiment.  I  hear  the  muffled 
drum  beating  in  slow  time ;  poor  fellow  !  it 
must  be  hard  to  die  of  sickness  in  this  coun 
try.  But  some  must  die  in  camp  of  fevers, 


THE  SERGE A^r S  MEMORIAL.  143 

etc.,  some  must  die  fighting,  and  some  will 
return  home.  But  then  I  thought  of  all  this 
before  I  started,  and  I  hope  I  am  willing 
and  ready  for  either." 

This  preparation  for  death  was  exempli 
fied  in  the  minutest  details  of  his  personal 
affairs.  On  the  fly-leaf  of  his  Testament, 
his  memorandum  book,  and  of  other  knap 
sack  treasures,  he  had  written,  "  To  be  re 
turned  to  32  W.  36th  street,  New  York"— 
thus  anticipating  a  sudden  death  by  address 
ing  mementoes  to  his  friends,  that  even  a  foe 
would  respect 

It  was  not  his  way  to  repeat  himself  in 
his  letters,  nor  to  multiply  words  upon  any 
subject.  When  he  had  settled  his  own  con 
victions  of  duty,  he  would  express  them 
once  for  all,  and  abide  by  them.  And 
perhaps  the  most  solemn  and  weighty  deter 
mination  of  his  life  would  be  uttered  as  a 
mere  "  aside, "  in  some  familar  letter  or 
talk  with  a  friend,  dropping  from  him  as  a 
matter  of  course.  And  so  it  happens  that 
his  most  comprehensive  and  decisive  judg- 


144  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

ment  with  regard  to  the  war,  is  found  in  a 
frolicsome  letter  to  a  college  classmate, 
whom  he  addresses  as  his  "dear  Chalk.77 
Alluding  to  his  three  years7  enlistment,  he 
says,  "  So  Chalk,  you  may  give  it  out  as 
rather  improbable  whether  I  return  to  Col 
lege.  Remember  me  to  the  class,  and  at 
your  next  Delta  Kappa  meeting,  as  one  who 
thinks  it  his  duty  and  the  duty  of  every 
man  to  go  and  fight  in  this  time  of  need. 
And  more  particularly  the  duty  of  such  as 
you  are,  who  have  good  habits  formed,  and 
are  ready  and  quick  to  learn — that  intelli 
gence  and  refinement  may  prevail  in  our 
army,  and  that  it  may  not  be  left  to  the 
scum  and  scourings  of  the  land  to  win  the 
battles  and  claim  the  laurels.  Every  one 
of  us  ought  to  say  in  future  years,  '  I  used 
that  gun  in  762, 763, — or  better,  that  sword? 

"  I  know  we  want  education  ;  but  where 
is  the  good  of  education  without  your  coun 
try  ?  And  where  is  your  country  without 
your  men  to  fight  and  make  it  ? 77 

A  friend  to  whom  this  sentiment  was  sent 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  145 

as  an  index  of  the  sergeant's  character,  thus 
responds  : 

"  My  dear  and  bereaved  friend ;  That 
is  a  noble  passage  in  the  letter  of  our 
youth.  Is  he  not  ours — mine  ?  Has  he  not 
laid  down  his  life  for  my  country?*  I 
sjrmpathize  most  deeply  with  you,  more  so, 
perhaps,  than  any  other  person  out  of  your 
immediate  family.  These  things  come  home 
with  me. 

"  There  is  no  other  comfort  to  be  offered 
to  you — and  can  there  be  greater  comfort  ? 
— than  that  he  died  young  in  a  great  cause, 
and  that  he  died  trusting  in  his  God.  It  is 
in  life  as  it  is  in  science,  in  art,  and  in 
religion — in  moments,  actions,  sufferings  and 
speculations  of  the  last  importance  and 
intensest  energy,  we  must  always  recur  to 
the  first  and  elementary  truths,  to  the  sim 
plest  facts.  It  is  so  when  we  lose  our  first 
born.  Of  what  unspeakable  magnitude  is 
then  the  truth  that  we  shall  see  one  another 

*  Though  Professor  Lieber  is  a  German,  no  one  has  done  more 
than  he  to  vindicate  our  nationality,  and  to  rally  his  countrymen 
for  its  defense. 

13 


146  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

again,  and  shall  see  one  another  forever 
after  a  brief  space !  I  know  very  well  that 
this  does  not  dry  tears — why  should  they 
be  dried  ?  but  it  comforts  the  soul.  Death 
ha.s  long  appeared  to  rne  but  a  mere  ques 
tion,  by  what  train  we  or  our  friends  go. 
We  are  all  going  the  same  way  and  shall 
soon  meet  again,  though  one  goes  by  an 
early  train  another  by  a  later  one.  But 
are  not  all  of  us  standing  and  waiting  at 
the  station  ? 

"  God  comfort  you. 

"  Very  truly  your  fellow  mourner, 

"  FRANCIS  LIBBER." 


XX. 

"  MAN  proposes  and  Stonewall  Jackson 
disposes ;  so  who  can  tell  what  will  hap 
pen?"  It  was  thus  that  the  Sergeant  an 
nounced  to  a  college  chum  his  "  change  of 
base."  A  hurried  line  of  Dec.  27,  announced 
"  marching  orders,"  and  a  few  days  later  he 
hails  from  Martinsburg,  in  good  health, 
"  well  acclimated  by  a  summer  and  a  winter 
in  Virginia,"  full  of  pluck,  and  eager  for 
work. 

"  Yesterday  I  was  on  duty  at  the  Provost 
guard.  We  had  thirty-six  rebel  prisoners 
to  guard,  beside  the  drunken  men  of  the 
town.  These  rebels  are  a  smart  set,  and 
require  close  watching.  This  morning  two 
of  them  got  into  a  fight,  and  I  had  to  '  fall 

(147) 


148  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

in'  to  stop  them.  I  thought  at  first  there 
would  be  a  general  «fight,  in  which  case 
about  six  of  them  would  have  been  shot  by 
my  revolver  pretty  quickly  ;  but  I  managed 
to  fling  .the  two  apart  and  to  quiet  them 
down." 

The  winter  wears  away  at  Martinsburg 
much  as  the  fall  had  done  at  New  Creek ; 
the  same  routine  of  duties, — only  the  picket 
service  more  arduous  by  reason  of  distance 
and  the  weather, — the  same  occasional 
alarms,  the  same  eagerness  for  some  decisive 
movement. 

"  There  is  almost  no  news  at  all,  nothing 
but  muddy  weather,  rain,  and  thaw.  If  the 
troops  at  Fredericksburg  have  such  weather, 
don't  blame  them  for  not  advancing.  I  do 
wish  that  the  men  by  whom  the  pontoon 
trains  were  delayed  might  be  shot ;  and 
also,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  Cabinet  would 
attend  to  their  own  business,  see  that  we 
are  punctually  paid,  and  leave  the  figliting 
— when,  how,  and  where — to  our  leaders. 
How  could  you  in  your  study,  by  the  advice 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  149 

of  your  deacons,  direct  the  movements  of 
this  regiment  ?  or  say  to  our  colonel  when, 
where,  and  how  he  shall  drill  ?  It  is  just  as 
absurd  for  Lincoln  to  dictate  to  Burnside. 
And  why  is  General  Butler  recalled  ? 

"  It  is  the  universal  testimony  of  every 
man  here,  every  Union  man,  that  at  Antietam 
the  rebels  were  whipped  out,  and  as  they 
retreated  here,  they  were  disorganized  and 
expecting  to  be  followed  up  and  cut  to 
pieces.  But  McClellan  must  wait,  wait,  wait. 
In  short,  we  are  tired  of  such  warfare." 

One  solace,  however,  never  failed  him — 
his  home  correspondence  kept  up  against 
every  disadvantage.  To  his  mother  who 
had  praised  him  for  his  fidelity,  he  says  : 

"  Thank  you  for  your  compliment  in  last 
evening's  letter.  I  do  not  know  how  I  de 
serve  it,  for  I  write  my  letters  very  rapidly, 
in  a  tent  full ; — there  were  nine  here  when 
I  commenced  this, — (tent,  ten  feet  by  ten) 
and  rarely  have  time  to  read  them  over. 
But  I  like  to  write,  and  to  write  home  ; 
indeed  I  do  but  little  other  writing. 
13* 


150  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.        *    - 

"  I  do  not  think  you  need  to  feel  at  all 
anxious  about  me,  for  if  I  am  sick  I  always 
write  and  can  telegraph  at  any  time. 
In  case  of  a  fight — well,  you  have  an  ac 
count  of  our  last  battle,  and  our  future 
fights  this  winter  will  probably  be  the  same. 
Besides,  I  came  to  fight  and  do  any  thing  in 
the  love  of  country  line,  even  to  camp- 
loafing." 

Almost  every  day  brought  its  own  inci 
dents,  sometimes  its  special  lessons  of  fact  or 
principle. 

"  On  Friday,  I  was  on  picket  on  the 
Winchester  road.  Two  blacks  came  with 
a  four-horse  wagon,  one  a  young  man  of 
twenty-five  years,  the  other  a  man  of  fifty. 
They  stopped  to  show  their  passes,  and  the 
old  man  jumped  out  of  the  wagon  to  light 
his  pipe  by  our  fire. 

"  Are  you  a  free  man  ?  I  asked. 

" '  Yes,  sir,  I  paid  a  thousand  dollars  for 
myself,  then  I  bought  my  daughter  and  my 
wife.7 

"  Well  that  was  bully  for  you — but  what 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  151 

did  you  want  to  buy  yourself  for  ?  didn't 
you  have  a  kind  master  ? 

"  The  old  man  took  his  pipe  from  his 
mouth  and  looked  at  me. 

" t  No  slave  ever  had  a  kind  master,  sir. 
You  get  a  little  bird  and  put  him  in  a  cage 
and  feed  him  and  take  care  of  him  and  all 
that,  but  you  open  the  door  and  away  he  go  ; 
lie  knoiv.' 

"  I  told  him  he  was  well  worth  a  thousand 
dollars.  Why  is  this  county  excepted  in 
Lincoln's  proclamation  ?" 

In  February  he  begins  to  feel  the  severity 
of  the  season — "  It  is  very  cold.  We  .pile 
on  the  wood,  but  with  almost  no  good 
effect,  and  I ' enjoy'  a  severe  cough  and  cold. 
But  I  shall  get  over  this  sometime,  I  sup 
pose.  Snow  again  this  morning — fast  and 
cold.  This  is  a  hard  time  for  pickets, 
standing  out  all  day  in  the  snow-  and  storm, 
and  then  all  night  too,  with  only  an  open 
fire.  .  .  .  We  drilled  yesterday  for  two 
hours  in  snow  a  foot  deep." 

These  exposures  laid  the  foundation  of 


152  THE  SEE GE ANTS  MEMORIAL. 

his  fatal  disease  ;  and  it  is  now  evident 
that  during  February  his  health  was  seri 
ously  impaired.  Yet  so  cheerful  was  the 
tone  of  his  letters  that  not  a  suspicion  of 
danger  was  awakened  in  the  minds  of  his 
friends. 

Alluding  to  the  death  of  young  Lieu 
tenant  Gray,*  he  says,  "  I  am  sorry  for  any 
one  d}ring  of  fever  or  other  camp  sickness. 
We  all  regard  such  deaths  as  to  no  pur 
pose,  and  I  am  sure  many  have  died  in  this 
regiment  when  good  home  care  would  have 
saved  their  lives  easily.  But  the  Govern 
ment  is  so  slow  to  give  a  furlough  or  dis 
charge,  as  a  precaution  for  its  own  interests 
against  fraud,  that  often  before  the  leave  to 
go  home  arrives,  the  poor  sick  soldier  is 
only  waiting  for  his  final  home.  I  would 
not  complain,  indeed  I  cannot  be  too  thank- 


*  Lieutenant  William  Cntten  Bryant  Gray,  of  my  <vwn  flock, 
a  fhorough  officer,  a  promising  scholar,  a  devoted  Christian—' 
*  ,o  having  passed  through  the  battles  and  exposures  of  Gen- 

al  Pope's  campaign  in  Virginia,  as  an  officer  of  General  Double- 
day's  staff,  died  in  a  hospital  at  Washington,  of  a  fever  contracted 
while  directing  an  engineering  corps  on  the  Rappahannock, 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  153 

ful  that  we  have  had  so  few  hardships.  I 
will  reserve  all  trouble  for  harder  times 
than  these.  Suppose  we  were  ordered  to 
inarch  to-night,  and  kept  moving  for  weeks 
without  a  tent  to  cover  us?  or  sent  on 
picket  where  no  fires  were  allowed?  or 
forced  to  work  in  swamps  and  woods  build 
ing  bridges  and  earthworks?  It  may  all 
come,  but  as  yet  I  have  seen  but  few  hard 
ships.  However,  we  are  undergoing  a  steady 
toughening  process,  four  hours'  drill  daily, 
and  guard  duty  about  every  five  days." 

On  the  1st  of  March,  1863,  he  wrote  to 
his  mother,  "I  think  I  am  now  on  the 
straight  and  narrow  road  that  in  this  camp 
leads  to  health.  After  all  forms  of  coughs 
and  colds,  sore  lungs,  side-ache,  face-ache, 
tooth-ache,  ear-ache,  head-ache,  neuralgia, 
fever,  starvation  (what's  pork  and  dry  bread 
to  a  sick  man?)  I  am  still  alive  and  trying 
hard  to  keep  so.  Two  days,  Thursday  and 
Friday,  I  spent  in  a  hotel,  but  returned  to 
camp  in  perfect  disgust,  preferring  the  com 
forts  of  a  Sibley  tent  to  any  bar-room  in 


154  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

Martinsburg.  I  only  want  now  my  box  as 
sent  for,  to  '  set  me  up/  The  amount  of  it 
all  is,  that  I  have  had  a  pretty  long  sick 
spell  and  now  am  much  better,  though  cough 
and  cold  still  cling  to  me. 

"  It  is  very  muddy  here,  but  a  strong 
wind  blows,  almost  enough  to  take  the  tent 
over.  There  has  been  some  trouble  below 
Winchester,  and  a  fight  is  somewhat  ex 
pected.  All  the  people  here  expect  Jack 
son  to  return,  and  I  should  not  be  in  the 
least  surprised  if  he  did,  some  time  in  the 
spring,  just  to  season  the  106th." 

Five  days  after,  the  regiment  removed  to 
North  Mountain — "A  hard  march  of  ten 
miles,  in  mud  and  water ; — a  hard  one  for 
me  at  least,  as  I  was  not  fully  in  strength  ; 
but  it  did  me  good,  I  am  sure."  This  (of 
March  7th)  was  his  last  letter. 

His  captain  and  the  surgeon  had  attempted 
to  dissuade  him  from  marching ;  but  he  in 
sisted  that  he  would  go  with  his  men.  The 
men  endeavored  to  relieve  him  of  his  knap 
sack,  but  he  insisted  that  a  sergeant  should 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.          155 

set  a  good  example  to  privates.  "  I  never 
saw,"  said  one  of  thorn,  "  such  courage  and 
energy  as  the  sergeant  showed.  We  all 
thought  he  was  not  equal  to  the  march ;  but 
lie  would  not  be  relieved.  He  said  that  he 
must  be  a  soldier,  and  do  all  his  duty  for  his 
country," 

He  had  just  been  advised  that  his  promo 
tion  to  a  lieutenancy  was  determined  upon 
by  the  Colonel—"  Well,"  said  he  to  his  in 
formant,  "  if  a  commission  comes  to  me,  of 
course  I  shall  not  object ;  but  I  do  not  as 
pire  to  it."  And  to  another  he  remarked, 
that  "  he  had  enlisted  with  a  determination 
to  do  anything  for  his  country  ;  and  he 
sometimes  felt  that  he  could  serve  it  bet 
ter  as  he  was,  than  in  some  higher  office, 
with  more  temptations  to  consult  his  own 
ease." 

On  the  day  after  the  weary  inarch  to 
North  Mountain,  he  insisted  upon  taking 
his  regular  turn  on  picket  duty,  and  for  this 
purpose  went  out  several  miles  from  camp. 
A  snow-storm  came  up  in  which  he  passed 


156  THE  SEh  ZEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

the  niglit.  The  next  morning,  Monday,  he 
barely  dragged  himself  back  to  camp,  and 
sank  down  in  his  tent  with  severe  symptoms 
of  typhoid  pneumonia.  The  surgeon  was 
absent,  and  there  was  no  hospital.  But 
after  two  days  he  was  removed  in  an  ambu 
lance  to  a  private  house,  where  he  lingered 
until  the  night  of  the  following  Sabbath. 

The  kind  friends  who  waited  on  him 
there  found  him  "  so  gentle,  patient,  and 
uncomplaining  in  his  spirit,  and  so  delicate 
and  sensitive  in  his  habits,  that  it  was 
almost  impossible  to  render  him  any  service. 
And  at  the  same  time  he  was  so  composed 
and  resolute,  so  cheerful  and  hopeful,  that  it 
was  difficult  to  realize  how  sick  he  was." 

A  pious  captain  visited  him  for  the  ^ake 
of  religious  conversation,  knowing  nothing 
of  him  personally.  "  I  soon  perceived/7  he 
says,  "  that  I  was  talking  with  one  who 
was  no  stranger  to  these  things,  and  found 
him  entirely  at  peace  with  God." 

Two  of  his  tent-mates  watched  over  him 
with  brotherly  fidelity,  and  one  of  them 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.          157 

reports  from  written  memoranda  the  closing 
scene. 

"About  11  P.  M.  the  doctor  called  to  see 
him ;  his  breathing  was  very  irregular. 
The  doctor  shook  his  head,  as  much  as  to 
say  the  case  was  hopeless.  It  seemed  that 
the  sergeant  for  the  first  time  fully  realized 
his  danger.  He  asked  the  doctor  if  he 
could  stand  under  it ;  the  doctor  told  him 
he  could  not.  He  then  asked  if  it  would  not 
be  well  to  telegraph  to  his  father.  He  was 
told  that  the  captain  had  already  done  so. 
He  expressed  his  satisfaction,  adding,  '  I  am 
so  glad  ;  father  will  be  sure  to  come  to-mor 
row.7  He  then  looked  me  full  in  the  face  and 
grasped  my  hand  and  said  (calling  my  given 
and  surname),  Good-bye.  A  cold  shudder 
went  through  my  frame,  as  it  was  the  first 
time  I  had  ever  stood  face  to  face  with 
death.  He  still  held  my  hand  and  said,. 
'  Send  my  love  to  my  dear  father  and  mother, 
brothers  and  sisters.  I  hope  to  meet  them 
in  heaven.7  He  made  a  few  requests  con 
cerning  his  personal  effects,  then  prayed  to 
14 


158  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

God  to  forgive  him  his  sins.  After  two  or 
three  short  prayers,  he  asked  Tanner  to 
sing.  He  sang  as  well  as  his  voice  would 
permit,  a  verse  commencing,  'Asleep  in 
Jesus,  blessed  sleep.7 

"When  he  had  finished,  the  Sergeant 
requested  him  to  repeat  it,  which  he  did 
with  more  composure.  He  then  asked  some 
one  to  pray — but  neither  of  us  had  ever 
made  a  prayer  ;  and  were  silent.  He  made 
the  request  again,  but  neither  of  us  could 
say  a  word.  He  then  prayed  again  himself. 
The  captain  came  in  soon  after  and  tried  to 
revive  him — but  he  kept  gradually  sinking 
until  about  a  quarter  past  one,  when  he 
settled  into  a  composure  or  ease,  and 
breathed  more  regular  but  shorter,  until  his 
breath  entirely  left  him  at  1.30  A.  M.,  March 
16th,  1863." 


Servant  of  God,  well  done !  * 
Rest  from  thy  loved  employ : 

The  battle  fought,  the  victory  won, 
Enter  thy  Master's  joy. 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  159 

At  midnight  came  the  cry, 

"  To  meet  thy  God  prepare !" 
He  woke — and  caught  his  Captain's  eye ; 

Then,  strong  in  faith  and  prayer, 

His  spirit  with  a  bound 

Left  its  encumbering  clay ; 
His  tent,  at  sunrise,  on  the  ground 

A  darkened  ruin  lay. 

Soldier  of  Christ,  well  done ! 

Praise  be  thy  new  employ ; 
And  while  eternal  ages  run, 

Rest  in  thy  Saviour's  joy. 


XXI. 

TIE  "  died  in  camp  of  fever" — the  death  he 
*•  least  desired  ;  and  I  realized  what  it  was 
to  "  hear  the  muffled  drum  beating  in  slow 
time/7  as  I  followed  him  from  the  chamber 
of  death  to  the  train  that  would  bear  him 
homeward.  At  the  station  in  Baltimore  a 
soldier  inquired  whose  remains  I  was  guard 
ing.  On  being  told,  he  exclaimed,  "  Why 
the  106th  is  my  regiment,  and  I  knew  Ser 
geant  Thompson,  though  he  was  not  in  my 
company.  I  remember  his  passing  my  picket 
with  that  rebel  captain.  How  he  put  him 
through  !  Yes,  Sergeant  Thompson  ;  he 
was  always  quiet  and  gentle  ;  looked  as  if 
lie  couldn't  stand  it,  he  was  so  slim  ;  never 
said  much,  but  always  did  it" 

(160) 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  161 

Beautiful  and  touching  was  the  tribute 
paid  to  the  young  soldier  at  the  funeral 
solemnities  in  the  Tabernacle  Church :  by 
comrades  in  arms  from  the  22d  regiment,  by 
classmates  from  Yale  College,  by  the  young 
men  of  the  church,  its  officers,  arid  the  con 
gregation  at  large  ;  very  precious,  comfort 
ing,  elevating  were  the  utterances,  in  prayer 
and  address,  of  the  beloved  brethren  who 
led  the  thoughts  and  devotions  of  the  assem 
bly.*  Serene  as  peace  after  victory, — the 
mournful  cost  forgotten  in  the  exceeding 
great  reward — was  the  impression  of  the 
closing  hymn,  the  departed  soldier  smiling, 
in  the  holy  calm  of  death,  with  his  sword 
beside  him : — 

Thine  armor  is  divine — 

Thy  feet  with  vict'ry  shod ; 
And  on  thy  head  shall  quickly  shine 

The  diadem  of  God. 

*  Rev.  W.  I.  Budington,  D.  D.,of  Brooklyn,  conducted  the  devo 
tional  service;  Rev.  R.  S.  Storrs,  D.  D.,  of  Brooklyn,  delivered 
an  address  of  remarkable  richness  and  force,  which  will  be  found 
at  the  close  of  the  volume,  as  kindly  written  out  from  his  own 
memory,  after  the  loss  of  a  phonographer's  report.  The  musical 

14* 


162  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

"  The  flowers  were  lovely,"  said  one,  "  the 
music  was  tender  and  impressive,  but  the 
sight  of  that  worn  and  faded  cap  showing 
hard  service,  touched  me  more  than  all ;  I 
broke  down  at  that." 

"  His  countenance  to  me,"  said  another,* 
"was  full  of  holy  inspiration  as  it  lay  so  calmly 
beneath  the  flowers  and  sword  of  death.  I 
remembered  him  as  I  used  to  see  him  at 
.  Andover,  with  his  noble,  gentle  ways.  I 
shall  always  associate  his  character  with  the 
heavenly  ideal  of  Phil.  iv.  8  :  l  Whatsoever 
things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  are  honest, 
whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever  things 
are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  what 
soever  things  are  of  good  report ;  if  there 
be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any  praise, 
think  on  these  things/  " 

He  was  laid  to  rest  with  kindred  dust  in 

selections  consisted  of  the  second  movement,  Allegretto,  from 
Beethoven's  Seventh  Symphony,  feelingly  rendered  upon  the  or 
gan  by  Miss  McGregor;  and  the  Chorus  No.  11,  from  Mendelssohn's 
St.  Paul,  "  Oh,  happy  and  blest  are  they  that  have  endured,"  sung 
with  exquisite  pathos  by  the  choir.  Both  organ  and  pulpit  were 
draped  with  flags  and  festooned  with  flowers. 

*  Kev.  J.  M.  Holmes,  Jersey  City 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  163 

Greenwood.  A  Christian  poet,*  who  knew 
what  loves  and  hopes  were  buried  with  him, 
has  woven  this  sonnet  as  a  chaplet  for  his 
tomb  : 


Smile  softly,  skies  !  upon  the  grassy  grave  ; 

Angels  !  about  it  holy  vigils  keep  ; 

Where  calm  reposes,  in  his  dreamless  sleep, 
The  young  and  manly,  generous  and  brave  : 
Deck  it,  ye  flowers  that  tears  of  love  shall  lave; 

Let  faithful  hearts  full  oft  beat  quicker  there  ; 

A  glory  not  of  earth  the  spot  shall  wear  : 
For  He,  the  Lord  of  Life,  that  died  to  save  , 

Of  the  still  sleeper  saith  —  "  He  is  not  dead! 
Whoso  believeth,  he  shall  NEVER  DIE  !" 

The  mortal  resteth  here  ;  the  immortal  —  sped 
Swifter  than  wings  or  fleetest  thought  can  fly 

Above  yon  burning  stars  —  exults  to  climb 

Of  Heaven's  own  life  the  eternal  heights  sublime  ! 

*  Eev.  Ray  Palmer,  D.D.,  of  Albany. 


XXII. 

TT  was  with  a  melancholy  and  yet  a  posi- 
L  live  pleasure  that  I  revisited,  in  May,  the 
encampment  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Sixth 
at  North  Mountain.  The  regiment  had  re 
ceived  the  "  seasoning  "  for  which  the  Ser 
geant  had  so  often  longed.  They  were  just 
in  from  a  hard  fight  at  Philippi  and  Fair- 
mount,  having  saved  Grafton  by  a  forced 
night  march.  It  makes  one  feel  the  war,  to 
go  into  a  camp  where  all  seem  as  sons  or 
brothers,  and  hear  the  story  of  a  ten  days7 
campaign  without  tents  or  knapsacks — not  a 
man  had  slept  under  a  shelter,  or  changed 
his  clothing — and,  in  the  course  of  which, 
one  circuit  of  near  forty  miles  was  made  in 
two  days,  varied  with  four  hours'  hard  fight- 

(164) 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.          165 

ing.  Some  are  left  behind  in  rude  but  hon 
ored  graves  ;  some  are  lying  wounded  in  the 
hospital ;  some  are  prisoners :  but  these 
worn,  soiled,  weary  men  are  ready  to  go  any 
whither,  to  meet  again  the  enemy  they  have 
routed,  and  will  fight  on  still  for  my  liberty, 
my  government,  my  country.  It  is  a  small 
thing  one  can  do  to  thank  them,  to  cheer 
them,  to  send  them  little  home-comforts,  to 
pray  for  them,  to  stand  by  them  and  the 
good  cause. 

How  grateful  it  was  to  gather  up  all  the 
pleasant  memories  of  the  departed,  that 
lingered  in  the  camp  and  clustered  especially 
about  tent  No.  4.  Indeed,  it  was  not  neces 
sary  to  "gather77  these,  for  they  came  in 
upon  every  breath,  as  freshly  as  if  he  had 
just  been  taken  from  his  comrades. 

"  Our  tent  seems  very  lonely  and  sad  :  the 
Sergeant  was  always  so  cheerful  and  lively, 
we  can't  get  used  to  being  without  him.77 

"  He  nursed  me  when  I  was  sick  ;  gave  me 
his  own  bunk,  and  tended  me  like  a  brother. 
I  would  have  done  anything  for  him.77 


166  THE  SEBGEA  WTS  MEMORIAL. 

"  My  place  to  lie  in  the  tent  was  next  the 
Sergeant ;  and,  for  many  a  night  after  he 
was  gone,  the  sight  of  something  that  was 
his  would  make  me  feel  so  bad  that  I 
couldn't  sleep.  I  had  to  get  up,  and  go  out 
and  walk,  for  I  couldn't  bear  to  feel  that  he 
was  gone.  He  was  such  a  friend  to  us 
all." 

"  Everything  in  the  tent  reminds  us  of  the 
Sergeant,  and  we  try  to  keep  things  just  as 
he  placed  them.  Every  one  of  us  has  some 
little  memento  of  him.  Mine  is  a  picture 
that  he  used  to  value.  I  have  sent  it  home 
to  my  brother,  to  be  framed  and  hung  up  in 
the  parlor.  If  I  go  back,  I  shall  have  it  to 
remember  the  Sergeant  as  long  as  I  live  ; 
and,  if  I  don't  get  back,  my  brother  will 
have  it  to  remember  us  both  by." 

Ah!  Avar  is  not  wholly  a  school  of  the 
rougher  passions.  How  much  that  is  gen 
tlest,  purest,  holiest  in  our  nature  is  brought 
into  consciousness  by  being  brought  into 
requisition,  in  the  camp,  the  field,  and  the 
hospital. 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  167 

Going  again  to  Harper's  Ferry,  the  scene 
of  so  many  tragic  changes,  I  was  pro 
foundly  impressed  with  the  desolating  pro 
gress  of  the  war. 

The  little  engine  house  where  John 
Brown  extemporized  his  fort,  looks  no  more 
formidable  than  when  the  brave  captain 
was  led  out  of  it  a  prisoner.  But  the  mas 
sive  batteries  frowning  from  every  height — • 
multiplied  fourfold  since  Antietam, — mark 
the  present  guage  of  the  war,  that  the  blind 
impulse  or  the  prophetic  insight  (I  never 
could  determine  which)  of  one  bold  friend 
of  the  oppressed,  here  opened  against  the 
gigantic  despotism  of  the  South.  Following 
his  lead,  as  the  condemned  hero  stooped  to 
kiss  a  slave-child  as  he  mounted  the  scaffold, 
so  grim-visaged  War  here  folds  to  its  pro 
tection  the  emancipated  bondmen  of  the 
valley.  Not  a  slave  remains,  it  is  said,  in 
all  that  county ;  few  in  all  the  region  of 
the  Shenandoah.  And  so  the  great  sacrifices 
have  their  compensation.  But  nevertheless 
,they  are  great  sacrifices.  One  can  measure 


168  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

them  better  by  contrasts,  at  intervals,  on 
such  a  spot  as  the  Ferry,  where  the  fury  of 
the  conflict  has  been  so  often  concentrated. 
There  has  been  sad  work  hereabouts  since 
last  July.  The  desolation  has  been  made 
three-fold  more  desolate,  in  the  destruction 
of  houses,  fences,  groves,  and  by  the  neglect 
of  planting  and  sowing  in  the  once  fertile 
valley.  Bolivar  Heights  and  Maryland 
Heights  are  now  both  stripped  of  trees ;  and 
many  a  brown,  dingy  acre  marks  the  site  of 
a  deserted  camp.  Saddest  of  all,  here  on 
this  lovely  slope  where  last  summer  I  saw 
my  regiment  drill,  I  can  count  upwards  of 
three  hundred  graves  of  soldiers,  side  by 
side,  in  unturfed  rows,  each  with  its  rude 
wooden  head-board  with  a  number  and  a 
name.  As  I  stoop  to  read,  I  have  a  tear 
for  every  one.  Each  grave  represents 
•wounded  hearts  far  away,  that  have  not  had 
even  the  sad  satisfaction  of  beholding  the 
faces  of  their  dead  ; — yet  we  cannot  pause 
for  private  griefs  in  this  great  agony  of  the 
nation.  Let  who  will  die,  if  the  nation 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  169 

lives.  Let  who  will  go  mourning  in  the 
future,  if  from  this  dark  and  dreary  night 
FREEDOM  shall  rise  with  new  brightness  and 
loy.  And  therefore  I  stand  amid  this  camp 
of  graves,  and  this  appalling  desolation, 
praising  God  that  heroism  is  not  dead,  that 
virtue  is  not  dead,  that  freedom  is  not  dead, 
that  my  country  is  not  dead ;  I  bless  God  for 
every  one  of  these  who  has  given  his  life  for 
the  noblest  cause  of  this  or  of  any  age  ;  I 
adopt  these  stranger  names  as  household 
treasures  ;  and  to  parents,  brothers,  sisters, 
who  gave  up  these  and  such  as  these,  I 
would  fain  send  out  the  All-hail  of  that 
grand  Future  which  they  have  sown  in  tears 
and  blood. 

15 


XXIII. 


tt  A  MAN  that  is  in  bitterness  for  his  first- 
**-  born  "  is  a  type  of  human  grief  that 
the  pen  of  inspiration  has  characterized  as 
calling  for  Divine  pity.  It  were  unjust  to 
our  own  nature  to  attempt  to  suppress  its 
strongest  outgoings  of  affection  ;  it  were 
ungrateful  to  God  not  to  confess  our  grief 
when  he  withdraws  his  most  precious  and 
most  generous  gifts.  What  such  a  gift  is, 
they  who  have  measured  it  from  every  point 
can  yet  hardly  describe. 

"  I  mourn  and  rejoice  with  you,"  says  one,* 
"  in  the  desolation  of  a  large  arena  of  earthly 
hope,  in  the  assurance  that  not  the  grave 
but  the  bosoDi  of  Eternal  Love  has  received 

*  Rev.  A  P.  Feabody,  D.  D.,  Professor  in  Harvard  University. 

(170) 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.          171 

your  child.  I  know — though  the  removal 
was  in  infancy — what  unutterable  disap 
pointment  there  is  in  the  death  of  a  first 
born  son.  The  two  or  three  years  for  which 
mine  was  with  me,  form  a  part  of  my  life — 
in  its  hopefulness,  in  its  varied  plans,  in  the 
commenced  realization  of  some  of  them  for 
the  benefit  of  one  in  whom  I  was  anticipat 
ing  a  posthumous  earthly  existence, — en 
tirely  unlike  the  time  before  and  since  ;  and 
I  can  well  understand  and  deeply  feel, 
how  all  this  must  have  been  intensified  in 
the  twenty  years  of  rich  and  beautiful  prom 
ise  for  which  your  son  was  left  in  your 
charge.  God  grant  that  we  may  both  be 
rendered,  by  such  experience,  the  more  meet 
to  renew  our  intercourse  with  the  departed 
in  the  Church  of  the  first-born." 

Another  friend  thus  pictures  the  frustra 
tion  of  plans  and  hopes  through  such  a  loss  :* 

"There  must  be  a  thousand  plans  frus 
trated,  some  of  which  lay  distinct  in  your 

*  Eev.  E.  A.  Park,  D.  D.,  Professor  in  Andover  Theological 
Seminary. 


1 T2  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

own  rnind,  but  the  greater  part  of  which  had 
not  been  brought  out  into  your  own  distinct 
consciousness  ;  yet  all  of  which  had  more  or 
less  secretly  influenced  your  life,  and  cheered 
you  amid  your  many  toils.  How  many 
visions  a  father  has  of  his  own  plans  out- 
reaching  his  own  life,  and  given  over  to  his 
son,  to  be  carried  out  long  after  the  father 
has  been  in  the  land  of  silence  !  And  how 
well  fitted  a  son  is  to  finish  what  his  father 
has  begun !  What  a  blessing  Charles  Fran 
cis  Adams  is  to  the  world,  in  preserving  so 
many  memories  of  his  father  and  grand 
father,  and  giving  to  his  country  a  better 
view  of  its  true  mission  than  could  be  given 
by  any  man  who  had  not  access  to  the  pri 
vate  papers  of  the  two  Adamses!  And  I  do 
not  doubt  that  you  have  had,  and  will  have 
a  hundred  projects  which  your  son  might 
have  carried  forward  better  than  any  other 
man  could  have  carried  forward. 

"  But  why  dwell  on  such  disappointments  ? 
I  do  not  know  why.  It  is  well  for  a  man  to 
feel  his  whole  trouble;  No  one  but  yourself 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  1 73 

can  possibly  know  how  heavy  your  loss  is  • 
but  the  heavier  it  is,  so  much  the  dearer  is  the 
thought  that  God  under standeth  all  things, 
and  He  lias  made  a  greater  gain  than  you 
have  suffered  loss.  And  if  the  Lord  is  the 
gainer,  then  may  his  children  well  afford  to 
be  losers  ;  for  their  loss  is  but  for  a  moment, 
and  is  soon  swallowed  up  in  His  gain,  which 
is  infinite." 

One  to  whom  I,  in  common  with  the  whole 
Church  of  Christ,  owe  grateful  honors  for 
the  Christian  and  heroic  training  of  his  first 
born,  and  tearful  thanks  for  his  record  of 
"  the  Child  of  Prayer/7  gives  this  kindred 
sympathy  : 

"  I  condole  with  you  with  the  utmost  sin 
cerity,  non  ignarus  mali. 

"  The  Lord  was  gracious  to  you  in  the 
character  of  your  son.  And  his  departure, 
though  painful  in  many  of  its  attendants, 
was  not  without  compensating  facts  of  pen 
sive  and  mellowing  interest.  To  stand  thus 
rooted  in  the  vineyard  and  witness  our 
branches  cut  off,  one  by  one, — while  our 
15* 


1 74  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

tears  overflow,  as  the  violated  current  of 
tender  living  sympathy  between  us  and 
them, — can  never  be  without  distress.  For 
myself  such  facts  have  made  a  living  sorrow. 
But  not  long  hence,  the  tree  will  also  be 
removed — and  we  must  live  in  anticipation 
and  desire  of  that  day.  'Bright  and  glorious 
it  will  be  for  those  who  love  Jesus,  I  would 
fain  hope  even  for  me.  I  pray  that  our 
beloved  Saviour  may  prosper  your  ministry 
and  your  household, — and  make  his  purposes 
ever  your  delight."* 

And  closer  yet,  in  the  appreciation  of 
certain  aspects  of  such  a  loss,  comes  an  hon 
ored  guide  of  youth  who  first  gave  his  son 
to  die  for  the  country,  and  then  has  caused 
him  to  live  again  a  thousand  fold  in  the 
story  of  his  consecrated  example  :  t 

"  How  naturally  and  how  deeply  I  sympa 
thize  with  you,  I  need  not  say.  We  are 
brothers  in  this  great  affliction,  as  we  seem 

*  Rev.  S.  H.Tyng,  D.D. 

t  Rev.  W.  A.  Stearns,  D.  D.,  President  of  Amherst  College, 
whose  touching  memoir  of  his  son,  Adjutant  Stearns,  should  be 
in  every  household  in  the,  land. 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  1 75 

to  be  in  the  consolations  which  attend  it. 
How  much,  my  dear  sir,  there  is  to  comfort 
us.  Short  but  honorable  were  the  lives  of 
our  precious  boys.  They  have  left  a  noble 
record,  written  in  the  nation's  history  on 
the  hearts  of  their  countrymen.  They  have 
gloriously  'fulfilled  their  course/  They 
have  left  hallowed  memories  for  our  sancti- 
fication,  and  the  good  of  all  who  may  hear 
of  them.  It  is  decided,  and  decided  once 
for  all,  their  lives  were  not  failures.  In 
Heaven  before  us — how  pleasant  when  our 
turn  comes,  to  think  of  going  to  meet  them. 
We  have  been  their  teachers  on  earth,  they 
will  be  our  teachers  in  Heaven.  We  have 
helped  them  from  our  studies  and  experi 
ence  to  know  the  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ 
here  ;  they  will  help  us  by  their  higher  spir 
itual  wisdom  and  soul-ravishing  happiness, 
to  know  them  unspeakably  better  hereafter. 
"  These  afflictions  though  they  bow  us 
down,  I  really  think  are  tokens  of  an  Infi 
nite  Love  that  sent  them.  Will  they  not 
enlarge  our  experience  and  enrich  our  lives  ? 


176  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

I  think  they  will.  A  great  sacrifice  this, 
which  we  are  called  to  make  for  our  coun 
try.  But  oh!  if  the  God  of  our  fathers 
will  only  come  and  break  the  yokes  of  all  the 
bondmen  and  remove  the  awful  curse  which 
is  upon  us,  and  save  the  nation,  I  shall  say, 
we,  shall  say,  Amen,  though  the  grave-clothes 
of  our  sons  are  winding-sheets  of  blood." 


XXIV. 

"WE  take  up  again  that  AMEN.  The  cause 
*'  is  worth  the  sacrifice  ;  —  worth  infi 
nitely  more  than  any  individual  can  do  or 
suffer  in  its  behalf. 

"  I  do  not  undertake  to  say  a  word  that 
shall  look  like  condolence,  or  that  shall 
have  the  aspect  of  grieving  with  you,  or  for 
you,  for  the  death  which  is  thus  announced  ; 
for  if  I  did,  I  am  sure  the  language  of  your 
heart  would  be  that  of  another  under  some- 
what  similar  circumstances,  'I  would  not 
exchange  the  memory  of  my  dead  son  for 
the  possession  of  any  living  one  that  I 
know  of.' 

"  How  full,  to  the  end  of  your  life,  of  all 
that  is  grand,  grateful,  elevating  and  en- 

(177) 


178  TEE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

nobling,  will  be  thoughts  and  reminiscences 
with  which  you  and  your  family  will  dwell 
upon  the  memory  of  what  he  was.  No  dark 
spot  in  his  life,  no  blight  or  blot  on  his 
record,  but  all  that  a  parent's  heart  could 
wish,  he  died  with  a  heart  full  of  generous 
sympathies,  great  aspirations  for  good,  sur 
rendering  his  life  to  the  noblest  of  causes, 
before  experience  had  taught  him  aught  of 
the  hollowness  of  earthly  honor  or  the  in 
gratitude  of  man. 

"My  friend,  instead  of  condoling  with 
you  on  your  loss,  I  congratulate  you  from 
my  heart  on  the  priceless  legacy  which  your 
son  was  able  to  leave  you :  on  the  high 
satisfaction,  nay,  on  the  honest  pride,  with 
which  you  must  always  dwell  on  the  memory 
of  such  a  son.  And  when  this  cruel  war 
shall  be  over,  when  a  merciful  God  shall 
restore  our  waste  places,  rebuild  the  temple 
of  our  liberties,  and  our  people  renovated 
and  purified  by  that  dreadful  baptism  of 
blood  and  fire,  through  which  we  a?e  now 
passing,  shall  send  to  Heaven  the  grateful 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  1  <T9 

thanksgiving  of  a  regenerated  nation,  you 
shall  feel  an  honest  and  an  exultant  pride 
in  remembering  how  costly  was  the  sacrifice 
you  were  called  upon  to  make  in  procuring 
so  great  a  boon. 

"  And  when  life's  fitful  scene  draws  to  a 
close,  I  trust  it  will  be  among  the  most  con 
solatory  thoughts  of  a  death-bed,  that  you  are 
about  to  enter  on  a  life,  where  not  the  least 
of  its  joys  will  be,  that  you  are  to  join  the 
Patriot  and  Christian  son,  whom  you  now 
mourn,  never  to  be  separated."  * 

Thus  it  was  given  to  this  soldier-boy  by 
his  death  to  strike  anew  the  chord  of 
Christian  patriotism  in  many  hearts,  and  to 
call  forth  utterances  of  lofty  faith  and  hero 
ism,  for  the  times  through  which  we  are 
passing. 

"  Your  account  of  that  noble  son,"  writes 
a  consecrated  leader  in  the  cause  of  liberty, 
"fills  me  with  emotion  and  inexpressible 
sympathy.  But  the  thought  of  such  a  life, 
and  si^ch  a  death  must  be  sweet  to  you — 

*  Hon.  John  P.  Hale,  U.  S.  Senate. 


1 80  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

such  an  example  will  be  a  possession  al 
ways."  * 

One  who  had  known  something  of  his 
development  since  he  first  met  him  in  Lon 
don  as  a  playful  child,  thus  testifies  : 

"  From  what  I  saw  of  your  beloved  son 
when  we  were  travelers  in  Europe,  I  was 
deeply  impressed  with  the  integrity,  the 
strength  and  the  manliness  of  his  character. 
And  when  this  wicked  and  terrible  rebellion 
broke  out,  I  was  not  at  all  surprised  to  find 
that  he  promptly  offered  himself  for  the 
defence  of  our  suffering  country. 

"  It  is  an  abiding  conviction  with  me,  that 
great  truths  and  principles  are,'  for  the  most 
part,  established  by  great  sacrifices.  And 
when  such  sacrifices  as  your  noble  son  are  free 
ly  laid  upon  the  country's  altar,  I  cannot  doubt 
that  the  reward  will  be  found  in  the  free 
dom,  justice,  and  prosperity  of  the  future."  t 

That  is  the  exceeding  great  reward  be 
fore  all  who  labor  and  suffer  for  their  coun- 

*  Hon.  Charles  Sumner,  U.  S.  Senate, 
t  Kev.  T.  C.  Upham,  D.  D.,  Professor  in  Bowdoin  College. 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  181 

try  in  these  times ;  and  no  prayer  has  seem 
ed  to  me  more  comforting  than  this  from 
one  whose  name  is  largely  identified  with 
our  grand  uprising  of  patriotism.  "May 
God  comfort  you,  and  yours,  most  gracious 
ly.  And,  above  all,  may  He  be  pleased  to 
give  us,  in  this  terrible  struggle,  our  money's 
worth,  and  our  blood's  worth,  in  freedom 
and  righteousness."  * 

That  this  blessed  fruit  will  come,  no  heart 
that  rightly  believes  in  God's  government 
of  justice  over  this  world,  can  permit  itself 
to  doubt.  The  very  cost  of  the  purchase  is 
an  earnest  of  the  fulfillment.  For,  as  writes 
a  sagacious  observer,  "  it  is  not  the  will  of 
God  that  this  rebellion  should  be  over 
thrown,  and  with  it  the  curse  of  slavery, 
without  an  enormous  expenditure  of  precious 
blood  as  well  as  of  treasure.  But  my  faith 
is  firm  that  the  expense  is  well  laid  out,  and 
will  bring  to  our  children  a  harvest  an  hun- 
dredfold."t 

*  Rev.  E.  D.  Hitchcock,  D.  D.,  Professor  in  Union  Theological 
Seminary. 

t  Rev.  E.  P.  Barrows,  D.  D.,  Prof,  in  Andover  Theo.  Sem. 

16 


1 82          THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

One  whose  faith  rises  almost  to  prescience, 
so  grandly  forecasts  that  harvest  of  good, 
that  his  prophecy  evoked  by  a  brief  outline 
of  the  sergeant's  career,  seems  like  a  resur 
rection  of  the  dead. 

"I  have  been  much  interested  in  this 
sketch  of  the  life  and  death  of  your  first 
born,  a  life  in  its  morning  promise  and  beau 
ty,  nobly  laid  on  the  altar  of  God  and  his 
country,  and  destined  to  bloom,  yea,  I  am 
confident,  already  blooming  in  climes  be 
yond  the  sun,  and  in  a  glory  which  shall  not 
fade  when  fades  the  sun.  A  life,  brief  alas, 
to  friends  who  loved  and  mourn,  but  yet  in 
its  true  aspect  as  seen  from  the  heights  of 
the  true  universe,  most  rich,  complete,  and 
successful.  For  a  life  so  pure,  heroic,  lov 
ing — inspired  and  ennobled  by  piety  and 
patriotism  and  true  to  God  and  truth,  even 
unto  death — may  be  surely  so  denominated, 
however  brief!  A  life  baptized  of  God's 
spirit,  devoted  to  a  noble  cause,  surrendered 
at  the  behest  of  Right  and  Duty,  and  ending, 
short  as  was  its  limit,  in  the  city  of  our  God. 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL,  183 

How  much  could  earth  or  years  add  to  a 
life  like  this?  In  our  delusive  time-ward 
and  earth- ward  vision,  our  mortal  tears  fall 
over  such  a  career,  so  ending,  as  over  some 
thing  beautiful,  but  blighted  untimely  before 
fruitage.  But  the  sons  of  God  on  the  heights 
of  the  everlasting  will  hail  it  as  a  victory,  a 
triumph,  a  glory.  Of  such  it  shall  be  writ 
ten,  these  are  they  which  loved  not  their 
lives  even  unto  death,  therefore  do  they  stand 
before  God,  and  serve  him  day  and  night  in 
his  temple. 

"  When  I  contemplate  cases  like  that  of 
your  son,  and  think  how  many  of  the  noblest 
and  most  gifted,  the  choicest  and  best  "of  the 
land  have  fallen  in  the  cause  of  the  country, 
I  am  tempted  to  wonder,  if  not  to  murmur, 
and  to  ask  why  must  such  die  ?  Why  not 
be  spared  to  the  church,  the  country,  and 
humanity  ?  But  it  has  been  the  law  of  no 
ble  causes  ever  in  our  world  that  they  re 
quire  the  baptism  of  blood  and  tears — the 
best  of  the  best.  This  is  their  lustration  and 
conservation;  their  seal  and  signature  in 


1 84          THE  SERGEANT1  S  MEMORIAL. 

history  and  to  humanity.  Our  cause  comes 
under  this  law,  and  alas !  it  needs  great 
atonement. 

"  I  know,  my  dear  brother,  that  consider 
ations  like  these  cannot  staunch  your  tears 
or  beguile  your  heart  of  its  bitterness  for 
the  loss  of  your  first-born.  Nature  claims 
your  tears  and  God  pities  them,  and  they 
all  fall  in  his  sight.  From  our  mortal  stand 
point  the  grave  is  the  goal,  the  limit  of  the 
way.  To  the  eye  of  sense  the  tomb-stone 
hides  for  the  bitter  hour  the  shining  city 
which  Faith  sees  in  glory  beyond.  And 
well  I  know  that  not  all  the  eulogy  and  ac 
claim  of  loving  and  admiring  friends — yea, 
not  even  the  joy  of  national  victory  and  ju 
bilee  can  beguile  the  heart  of  its  longing  for 
the  loved  form  that  shall  never  wake  till  the 
resurrection  morning.  Long  will  the  heart 
ask  for  the  first-born — the  form  that  first 
called  you  father  ;  the  darling  of  your  early 
married  life,  endeared  by  the  memory  of 
those  beautiful  years.  Long  will  it  ask  for 
the  companion  of  your  travel  and  your  study; 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.          1 85 

the  manly  associate  of  your  manly  thought 
and  counsels  and  commune.  It  will  ask  un 
til  you  shall  lie  down  in  the  dust  beside  him, 
and  the  grave  shall  open  for  you  the  way  to 
the  Eternal  Reunion — a  walk  together  under 
the  shadow  of  that  tree  whose  leaves  shall 
heal  all  the  woundings  of  our  mortal  life. 

"  But  meantime  there  shall  be  comfort,  at 
times,  in  thinking  of  the  preciousness  of  what 
you  have  lost,  and  the  cause  and  manner  in 
which  it  has  been  lost,  as  well  as  of  the  cer 
tainty  of  its  glorious  restoration.  And  for 
that  you  l  have  buried  with  him  no  small  part 
of  your  life/  that  which  remains  shall  be 
richer,  holier,  happier  ever — such  is  God's 
fullness — for  this  very  loss  :  and  shall  par 
take  on  earth  of  something  of  the  angel-boy 
that  has  gone  before  you  to  the  skies.  Af 
fliction  shall  grow  to  glory,  sorrow  to  a 
sweetness  past  all  joy.  For  in  the  cloud  and 
dark,  the  Lord  himself  shall  descend  and 
walk  with  the  smitten  one,  and  touch  the 
earthly  love  of  father  and  son  with  the 
sweetness .  and  beauty,  the  holiness  and  the 
16* 


186  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

awe  of  the  Divine  and  Eternal.  That  God 
may  bring  you  this  blessedness  from  your 
bitter  grief,  and  by  the  gift  of  Himself  infi 
nitely  compensate  to  you  all  earthly  loss,  is 
the  prayer  of  one  in  earnest  and  loving  sym 
pathy."* 

*  Ecv.  T.  M.  Post,  D.  D.,  St.  Louis,  Missouri, 


XXV. 


et  decorum  est  pro  patria  mori. 
And  for  a  Christian,  I  have  often 
thought  there  might  be  some  special  sweet 
ness  —  if  not,  indeed,  some  unusual  bestow- 
ments  of  grace  in  dying,  and  some  unwonted 
cordiality  of  welcome  after  —  in  being  permit 
ted,  in  so  close  an  imitation  of  the  Saviour, 
to  lay  down  one's  life  for  others.  I  cannot 
help  thinking  that  Jesus  is  very  near  to  his 
little  ones  when  they  die  for  their  native 
land  ;  and  especially  when  they  make  the 
great  sacrifice  with  so  much  of  intelligent 
comprehension  of  all  the  issues  involved,  as 
your  dear  son  evidently  had  grace  to  do. 

"  I  congratulate   you,  my  dear   brother 
that  you  have  been  found  worthy  of  this 

(187) 


188  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

honor  from  the  Lord :  and  I  pray  that  you  may 
be  made  perfect  through  the  suffering  which 
this  honor  brings.  And  may  the  blood  of 
your  young  martyr — with  that  of  the  great 
multitude  who  shared  his  trial  and  share  his 
immortality — be  the  seed  of  good  things* 
and  great  things,  and  glorious  things,  for 
this  land,  and  for  Christ's  church  and  for 
God's  world ; — things  good  and  great  and 
glorious  enough  to  pay  for  the  lost  seed  ; 
and  that — though  it  lie  buried  long  in  the 
dust!"* 

"  Such  noble  examples  sanctify  our  cause, 
and  the  griefs  that  accompany  them  purify 
our  hearts  for  a  deeper  and  more  effective 
service  in  our  Master's  work.  Your  great 
loss  has  been  a  great  gain  to  many  others."t 

"  For  all  that  displayed  courage,  persist 
ence  in  the  way  of  duty,  high  principle,  just 
sentiments  and  manly  bearing,  you  have  rea 
son,  great  reason  to  cherish  his  memory  and 
bless  God  for  having  given  you  such  a  son. 

*  Kcv.  H.  M.  Dexter,  Boston, 
t  Kev.  H.  W.  Bellows,  D.  D.,  New  York. 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  189 

Nor,  while  you  mourn,  can  you  regret,  that 
since  he  must  die,  he  died  in  such  a  cause. 
Yet  the  true  consolation  to  your  spirit  is, 
that  to  all  his  high  manly  qualities  he  added 
the  faith  and  the  graces  of  a  Christian  ;  that 
his  last  hours  were  so  sustained  by  divine 
hope  ;  and  that  you  are  permitted  to  indulge 
the  undisturbed  confidence  that  death  has 
been  gain  V* 

"  Nobly  has  your  first-born  met  life's  claims 
and  filled  up  the  measure  of  duty  assigned 
him ;  traversed  his  circuit  without  a  mis 
step,  and  now  has  gone  to  his  reward.  There 
let  him  rest.  The  separation  will  be  short 
at  the  longest.  His  life  and  death  will 
preach  many  a  sermon  to  the  living.  I  very 
much  doubt  whether  the  brave  young  Stearns 
would  have  done  more  for  the  world,  had  he 
lived  twice  as  long,  than  he  has  done,  is 
doing,  and  will  do  for  how  long  a  time  none 
can  tell  !"t 

"  I  do  congratulate  you  that  you  had  a  son 

*  £ev.  Thomas  E.  Vermilye,  D.  D.,  New  York, 
t  Rev.  Isaac  P.  Langworthy,  Secretary  of  th3  American  Congre 
gational  Union. 


1 90  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

to  offer  and  be  offered,  for  his  country's  life  ; 
and  by  all  the  traits  which  endear  him  to 
your  memory,  and  by  all  the  hopes  which  he 
relinquished,  is  the  offering  enhanced.  He 
lived  longer  than  his  father  has  lived — com 
pressing  into  his  brief  career  of  youthful 
patriotism  and  honor  more  of  heroic  achieve 
ment  than  is  possible  in  the  longest  life,  to 
any  of  us  who,  in  the  providence  of  God,  are 
exempted  from  active  service  in  the  field  on 
which  are  staked  the  issues  of  liberty  and 
humanity,  and  the  destiny  of  our  dear  native 
land.  And  when  to  the  thought  that  he 
rests  in  a  soldier's  grave,  numbered  forever 
with  the  brave  and  faithful  defenders  of  our 
country,  is  added  the  reflection  that  he 
sleeps  in  Jesus,  awaiting  with  kindred  and 
sainted  dust  an  associated  rising  on  the 
morning  of  the  resurrection,  I  cannot  but  feel, 
my  brother,  that  God  has  highly  blessed  you 
in  your  first-born."* 

"  You  have  all  the  comfort  you  could  ask 
for  in  such  a  sacrifice  as  you  have  made. 

*  Rev.  Samuel  Wolcott,  Cleveland,  O. 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  191 

And  is  it  not  of  some  worth,  to  be  one  of 
the  l  exceeding  great  multitude7  who  have 
been  counted  worthy  to  make  the  sacrifice 
in  this  crisis  ?  They  seem  to  me  a  choice 
and  bright  assembly,  if  they  have  grace  to 
bear  the  baptism  they  are  baptized  with."* 
"  I  knew  John,"  says  a  kinsman,  "  only  as 
a  lad  of  promise,  and  have  seen  him  but 
little,  but  I  deeply  sympathize  with  you.  It 
is  the  first  time  that  this  war  has  brought 
its  melancholy  side  so  heavily  home  to  us. 
I  will  not  attempt  consolation  ;  you  undoubt 
edly  have  it  far  better  than  I  could  give. 
I  can  only  say  that  had  I  a  son  of  my  own, 
I  should  not  have  withheld  him  from  the 
great  cause  in  which  we  are  engaged  ;  and 
if  death  had  claimed  him  on  the  field,  or  in 
the  ranks,  it  would  have  been  some  comfort 
in  sorrow  to  feel  that  he  died  in  defence  of 
a  principle  more  important  than  any  previous 
contest  in  the  world'shistory  has  involved."t 

*  Rev.  Austin  Phelps,  D.  D.,  Professor  in  Andover  Theological 
Seminary, 
t  Dr,  John  K.  Bartlett,  Milwaukio.  Wis. 


1 92  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

An  honored  divine  who  made  tae  boy  his 
pet  in  travels  on  the  Rhone,  and  in  sight 
seeing  at  Paris,  writes  : 

"  Ah !  that  dear  noble  boy ;  how  can  I 
feel  grateful  enough  to  God  for  having 
given  you  such  a  son.  His  bosom  filled 
with  noble  sentiment,  the  soul  of  honor, 
truthfulness,  courage,  generosity,  and  yet 
undemonstrative,  showing  all  based  on  prin 
ciple  ;  and  above  all  to  have  that  character 
sanctified  by  the  ever  Blessed  Spirit,  the 
splendid  temple  laid  in  ruins  by  the  first 
Adam,  restored  to  much  of  its  beauty  by 
the  second  Adam, — of  all  this  to  have  been 
made  the  recipient — what  more  can  a 
father's  heart  ask  ?"* 

The  head  of  a  college  that  has  nurtured 
Christian  patriotism,  and  of  a  household  in 
which  the  Sergeant's  name  was  often  spoken 
by  those  who  had  both  known  and  loved 
him,  writes : 

"  The  event  so  full  of  sadness,  has  also 
another  aspect  of  beauty  and  grandeur.  It 

*  Eev.  J,  H.  Price,  D.  D.,  Hector  of  St.  Stephen's,  New  York. 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  1 93 

is  a  blessed  thing  to  have  had  such  a  son. 
Very  beautiful  was  the  unfolding  of  Chris 
tian  grace  as  he  advanced  in  years  and 
grew  up  to  the  stature  of  a  man.  Very 
precious  are  the  memories  of  that  brief  life 
— almost  unmarred  it  seems  by  any  out 
break  of  waywardness,  and  the  death  which 
terminates  that  -life  is  made  grand  by  the 
self-devotion  which  in  the  coincidence  of 
his  own  choice  and  God's  appointment 
determined  its  time  and  place  and  manner. 
We  could  wish  that  it  might  have  been 
prolonged,  but  the  voice  of  God  and  of  our 
common  humanity  declares  it  a  noble  life 
well  ended, — -no,  not  ended,  but  gloriously 
begun,  through  God's  grace  making  death 
but  the  translation  of  the  soul  to  the  true 
sphere  of  its  life.  There  with  the  welcome 
'  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant/  he 
has  already  been  ushered  into  the  joys  of  his 
Lord  and  charged  with  more  important 
trusts  in  His  service. 

"  Then,  too,  as  the  event  tests  the  sincerity 
and  entireness  of  his  sacrifice  and  yours,  to 
17 


1 94  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

the-  cause  of  truth  and  humanity,  so  you  may 
rightly  interpret  it  as  setting  the  seal  of 
God's  acceptance  to  the  sacrifice.  And 
what  more  could  you  desire?  what  more 
could  years  of  successful  service  bring  ?  All 
was  given — all  is  accepted — and  in  the  end 
it  will  appear  that  God  has  made  the  utmost 
that  he  could  of  the  child,  the  man  so  conse 
crated.  *  Except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into 
the  ground  and  die,  it  abideth  alone  ;  but  if 
it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit/  applies 
to  the  disciple  as  well  as  to  the  Master. 
Your  son  has  not  thrown  himself  away. 
His  life  has  not  been  spent  in  vain.  Through 
its  sacrifice  in  the  cause  of  righteousness,  it 
swells  the  measure  of  that  suffering  identi 
fied  with  Christ's  suffering,  which  is  at  the 
same  time  the  purchase,  price  and  the  ele 
ment  of  power  for  securing  the  world's 
redemption  from  all  evil.  From  the  little 
seed  thus  sown,  precious  fruit  will  be  growing, 
and  ripening  through  the  ensuing  ages."  * 

*  Rev.  A..  L.  Cha  in.  D.  B.,  President  of  Beloit  College,  Wis 
consin. 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  1 95 

This  is  the  view  that  sanctifies  and  ele 
vates  our  conflict ;  that  invests  our  per 
sonal  experiences  of  sorrow  in  this  cause 
with  something  of  that  majestic  import  that 
pertains  to  the  highest  Christian  sacri 
fice. 

One  who  has  devoted  a  life  of  self-sacrifice 
to  laying  the  foundations  of  Christian  insti 
tutions  in  Illinois,  while  looking  back  from 
the  shadow  of  Oxford  upon  his  western 
home,  sends  his  estimate  of  the  worth  of  our 
country,  in  these  stirring  words  : 

"I  assure  you  that,  looked  back  upon 
from  England,  my  country  seems  infinitely 
precious.  I  do  not  know,  for  I  have  not  yet 
been  put  to  the  trial,  whether  I  have  self- 
sacrifice  enough  to  give  my  life,  or  give  my 
son  for  any  good  cause  ;  but  I  am  sure  if  1 
could  make  such  a  sacrifice  for  any  thing,  it 
would  be  for  such  a  country  as  ours,  in  this 
hour  of  her  calamity  and  danger.  I  see 
much  to  admire  and  love  in  England,  but  I 
never  before  saw  so  clearly  what  God  has 
done  for  our  country.  With  a  full  heart  I 


1 96        ''  HIE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

thank  the  Lord  that  he  sent  my  ancestors  to 
America,  six  generations  ago.  I  accept  it, 
war  and  all,  with  all  the  uncertainties  of  the 
future. 

"  If  by  these  terrible  sacrifices  our  coun 
try  is  to  be  saved  for  a  happy  future  of 
freedom  and  peace,  then  how  you  will  re 
joice  that  your  noble  son  died  not  in  vain  ; 
tli at  by  a  death  so  early,  and  so  honorable, 
he  has  done  more  for  human  well-being, 
than  he  could  have  done  by  the  longest  and 
most  useful  life.77  * 

But  the  Gospel  which  inspirits  our  patriot 
ism,  imparts  to  these  sacrifices  a  higher 
value,  while  it  attends  them  with  a  richer 
consolation. 

"  I  mourn  with  you,  my  dear  brother,  in 
your  great  sorrow  to  which  you  allude  in  a 
single  line  of  your  letter.  May  God  help 
you  to  bear  it,  remembering  Him  who  '  so 
loved  the  world  that  He  gave  Ms  only  be 
gotten  Son7  for  its  sake.  We  are  learning 
in  this  great  strife  how  to  understand  God, 

*  Eev.  J.  M.  Sturtevant,  D.  D.,  President  of  Illinois  College. 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  197 

and  how  to  sympathize  with  him  both  in  his 
justice  and  his  mercy,  in  his  wrath  and 
his  love.  The  cup  of  Gethsemane  is  put 
into  our  hands,  the  agony  of  Calvary  is  be 
fore  us  ;  but  it  is  for  the  work  of  Redemp 
tion  ;  without  such  dying  of  the  just  for  the 
unjust  there  can  be  no  remission. 

"  I  know  how  the  grave  of  that  soldier- 
boy  will  seal  your  patriotism,  and  bring  into 
it  all  the  sacredness  of  your  religion  itself ; 
how  it  will  make  it  more  impossible  than  it 
was  before  even,  that  you  should  ever  cease 
to  preach  and  to  pray,  to  labor  and  to  fight, 
if  need  be,  until  this  bloody  Moloch,  which 
is  devouring  ten  thousands  of  our  sons,  is 
hurled  from  his  throne  and  driven  from  the 
land. 

"  My  dear  brother,  may  God  mark  your 
sacrifice  in  his  book.  May  he  give  it  its 
full  place  in  that  great  and  terrible  ransom 
by  which  our  deliverance  is  to  be  bought, 
and  may  you  live  to  see  the  day  when  you 
can  stand  over  that  green  grave  and  say, 
under  the  new  light  which  shall  then  shine 


1  9  8  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

down  from  Heaven,  the  glory  is  greater 
than  the  gloom,  the  reward  is  greater  than 
the  sacrifice ;  I  bless  God  that  I  had  one 
life  to  give  for  my  country."  * 

*  Rev.  Leonard  Swain,  D.  D.,  Providence,  R.  I. 


XXVI. 

"DEAUTIFUL  is  the  light  of  Christian 
•U  faith  and  hope,  when  the  evening  of  a 
long  and  useful  life  blends  itself  with  the 
dawning  of  the  life  everlasting.  This  mel 
lowed  light  of  age,  kindling  anew  with  the 
advancing  glow  of  immortality,  turns  its  ra 
diance  back  upon  the  grave  of  the  young 
Christian  soldier.  The  veterans  of  the 
school  and  the  church  pay  their  tribute  to 
his  faith  and  patriotism. 

"  Memorable  is  the  record  of  the  virtues, 
the  heroic  and  high-principled  patriotism, 
the  noble  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  relig 
ious  devotion  to  the  calls  of  duty,  which 
impelled  this  brave  and  much-loved  youth 
to  encounter  the  toils,  the  fatigue,  the  pri 
vations  and  the  dangers  of  war. 

(199) 


200  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

"  In  several  visits  with  our  friends  at 
Cambridgeport,  we  were  much  interested  in 
the  unfolding  character  of  your  son,  rich  in 
promise  and  hope,  but  little  did  we  dream 
that  the  cheering  prospects  of  youth  were 
to  be  eclipsed  .by  the  funeral-pall,  even  in 
the  earliest  years  of  opening  manhood. 

"  It  will  not  be  long  before  the  precious 
souls  of  our  dear  departed  ones,  who  have 
been  redeemed  by  our  divine  Saviour,  will 
welcome  their  pious  friends  on  their  arrival 
in  heaven  ;  and  then,  all  the  sorrows  of  this 
life  will  be  remembered  only  as  a  part  of 
Christian  education  for  a  better  world.* 

Another,  whose  name  has  been  identified 
with  the  religious  progress  of  the  country, 
almost  as  long  as  that  of  Silliman  with  its 
progress  in  science,  writes  : 

"  Your  account  of  the  death  of  your  dear 
son  has  just  now  reached  me,  in  the  midst 
of  the  storm,  this  last  day  of  March.  So 
there  are  last  days  of  all  months  and  years 
and  centuries  and  of  all  the  lives  of  men, 

*  Prof.  B.  Silliman,  LL.  D.,  Yae  College. 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  201 

excepting  the  life  eternal,  which  is  hid  with 
Christ  in  God.  To  that  no  last  day  shall 
ever  come.  Begun  in  the  life  below,  its 
temporary  associations  shall  be  changed,  and 
its  earthly  ties  severed,  but  it  will  not,  can- 
iiot  have  an  end.  And  the  last  days,  on 
earth  of  those  who  inherit  the  life  eternal 
through  grace,  are  points  of  unutterable 
interest,  to  be  remembered  by  all  survivor/s, 
— sad,  as  "  the  last  of  earth,"  and  still  more 
sad  when  they  terminate  the  lives  of  young 
persons  nobly  aspiring  to  goodness  and  use 
fulness,  and  the  hopes  and  tender  wishes  of 
loving  families  are  blasted  in  the  bud.  But 
joyful  are  these  same  last  days,  as  seals,  by 
the  hand  of  God,  of  testimonies  given,  ex 
amples  completed,  and  victories  achieved ; 
more  joyful  still,  as  the  first  days  of  emanci 
pation,  the  points  of  departure  from  sin  and 
sorrow,  upward  and  onward  forever. 

"  You  have  seen  and  recorded  the  last  day, 
and  the  last  words  of  that  dear  son.  You 
feel  the  loss  of  what  he  was,  and  of  what 
he  might  have  been  to  you  and  yours,  and 


202  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

surely  you  are  in  'bitterness/  But,  my 
brother,  happy  is  the  parent  who  has  such  a 
record  to  make,  of  a  son  so  noble  in  his  aspi 
rations,  and  so  accordant,  heart  to  heart,  with 
himself.  To  have  had  the  possession  and 
the  training  of  such  an  offspring  for  such  an 
end,  above  all  the  sorrows  of  its  loss,  is  a 
joy  forever."  * 

*  Rev.  Absalom  Peters,  D.  D. 


XXVII. 

HTHEY  who  know  what  war  is,  know  how 
•  to  appreciate  the  death  of  the  soldier  in 
its  relations  to  himself,  to  his  friends,  to  his 
country. 

"The  Congrecjationalist  of  the  27th  ult. 
brings  to  me  the  first  intimation  I  have  had 
that  you  are  a  personal  sufferer  by  this  war, 
in  your  own  beloved  family.  I  can't  help 
writing  you  just  a  word  to  speak  of  my 
sympathy  with  you,  and  to  record  myself 
among  the  many,  many  friends  whose  eye 
will  moisten  at  your  grief  as  if  it  were  their 
own. 

"  Familiarity  with  death  on  the  battle-field 
and  in  the  hospital  has  not  made  me  less 
sensitive  to  the  .trying  circumstances  which 

(203) 


204          THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

attend  such  a  death,  but  more  so.  And 
with  a  full  knowledge  of  such  bereavements 
as  we  see  them  in  the  army,  though  without 
any  particular  acquaintance  with  the  facts 
in  this  case,  I  heartily  offer  you  my  frater 
nal  feeling,  and  pray  my  God  to  sustain  and 
comfort  you. 

"  You  are  blessed,  my  brother,  and  favor 
ed  of  heaven  in  giving  up  your  well-beloved 
son  to  die  for  the  nation,  for  the  age,  rather, 
and  those  twenty  years  and  six  months  of 
earthly  life,  with  such  a  termination,  and 
leaving  behind  so  fragrant  a  memorial,  arc 
worth  more  than  any  four-score  years  of  or 
dinary  existence.  How  fast  we  live  now ! 
This  may  be  the  time  the  prophet  had  in 
view  in  which  'the  child  should  die  an 
hundred  years  old.'  May  our  blessed  Sa 
viour  be  with  you  in  this  sorrow,  and  by  it 
touch  your  lips  with  a  more  tender  and  per 
suasive  eloquence  as  you  plead  for  the  bond 
man  whose  dungeon  door  is  just  beginning 
to  open.  You  can  hold  nothing  too  dear, 
not  even  your  own  life,  to  give  for  the  coun- 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  205 

try,  for  liberty,  for   Christian  civilization, 
for  God."  * 

And   another  voice  from    the   field   ex 
claims  : 

"  How  greatly  has  God  afflicted  you,  and 
how  greatly  honored  you!  Happy  they 
-  who  can  give  so  richly  for  the  sacred  cause 
of  country  and  humanity.  He  too,  your 
dear  boy,  is  a  part  of  the  great  cost  at  which 
the  nation  is  to  be  redeemed.  That  is  your 
precious,  precious  contribution  to  God's 
work  in  this  land.  By-and-by,  we  shall 
reckon  up  these  priceless  offerings.  We 
shall  recall  and  record  these  young  heroic 
martyred  names.  One  such  sacrifice  —  in 
such  a  day  —  the  whole  consummate  life 
thrown  in  at  a  single  gift — there  is  no  pro 
tracted  service  of  late  and  many  years  that 
can  peer  it.  How  complete  such  a  life  and 
story.  Nothing  fragmentary  and  broken 
off  here.  White  hairs  and  fourscore  win 
ters  could  not  have  so  rounded  and  filled' 

*  Eev.  Horace  James,  Chaplain  of  the  2Mh  Mass.,  and  now  Su 
perintendent  of  the  Freedmen  in  North  Carolina. 


206  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

out  the  earthly  work.  That  young  hand 
touched  the  crown  and  goal  in  life's  morn 
ing.  As  truly  as  Paul  the  aged,  could  those 
boyish  lips  say, '  I  have  finished  my  course/ 
The  nation  will  come  presently  and  lay 
down  the  gratitude  of  its  millions  at  such  feet 
as  yours — feet  that  walk  more  lonely  from 
henceforth — and  yet  shall  walk  on  the  high 
places  of  a  nation's  honor  and  guerdon. 

"  God  bless  you,  and  comfort  you,  and  re 
ward  you.  I  have  my  own  first-born  son 
with  me  in  the  45th,  our  Colonel's  mounted 
orderly.  He  has  ridden  safely  thus  far 
through  all  dangers.  But  I  have  given  him 
to  God  and  his  country.  He  has,  I  believe, 
so  given  himself.  I  can  feel  something  of 
what  it  would  be  to  miss  him  from  my  side 
and  from  my  home,  henceforth — but  he  is 
God's  —  my  offering  is  without  reserve. 
These  are  days  when  life  wins  its  ends 
early-"* 

*  Rov.  A,  L.  Stt  ne,  D.  D.,  of  Boston,  now  Chaplain  of  the  45th 
Mas?. 


XXVIII. 

ANE  who  had  some  interest  in  the  Ser- 
Vf  geant  when  a  school-boy  at  Cambridge, 
in  speaking  of  "  his  noble  and  consecrated 
character,"  goes  on  to  say,  "  the  thought  of 
the  cause  for  which  he  died  must  do  much 
to  bear  up  a  father's  mourning  heart.  Some 
times  I  think  of  those  who  mourn  as  you 
mourn,  and  who  make  such  sacrifices  as  you 
have  made,  as  the  privileged  men  of  the  land. 
But  such  sacrifices  are  very,  very  costly.7" 

And  my  dear  Oxford  friend,  the  truest 
friend  of  America  in  England,*  himself  lying 
on  the  verge  of  death,  shrinks  back  from  the 

*  Mr.  Joseph  Warne,  Postmaster  at  Oxford,  whose  personal 
influence  and  whose  pen  have  widely  and  intelligently  aided  our 
cause. 

(207) 


208  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

demands  of  our  cause,  when  told  that  the 
boy  he  loved  almost  as  his  own  had  become 
a  sacrifice.  "  How  vivid  to  me  the  young 
student,  the  volunteer,  the  resolved  whole- 
war  volunteer,  the  brave  and  courteous  cus 
todian  of  the  prisoner  ; — and  your  own  free 
and  forecasting  surrender,  and  your  comfort 
and  hope,  in  that  he  assured  you  all  was 
right  Christ- ward.  The  dear  Johnny  of  my 
heart,  so  real ;  so  loved  of  my  wife — you 
hardly  know  how  much  she  loved  Johnny. 

Ah,  the  enormous  cost  of  this  contest, 

not  in  money  only  but  in  the  best  life  of  the 
country,  quite  dismays  me.  Your  men  are 
too  good  for  their  work  !" 

And  yet  he  feels  also  that  the  CAUSE  dig 
nifies  and  elevates  the  sorrow  and  sanctifies 
the  loss.  Rather  would  I  rise  to  the  tone 
of  him  who  having  three  living  sons  in  the 
service  of  the  war,  writes  : 

"  Often  since  this  great  struggle  began  for 
our  country,  and  for  liberty  and  righteous 
ness,  the  regret  has  risen  in  my  mind  that 
my  eldest  son,  who  died  fifteen  years  ago 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  209 

when  he  had  just  entered  on  his  twenty-first 
year,  could  not  have  had  the  privilege  of 
making  the  great  sacrifice  which  so  many 
are  now  making  in  the  cause  of  our  country, 
and  of  the  world." 

And  such  is  the  inspiration  of  Christian 
patriotism  in  every  heart  that  measures  the 
moral  grandeur  of  our  national  struggle. 

"  As  I  came  down  from  the  pulpit  yester 
day,"  writes  Rev.  L.  Pilatte,*  "  a  friend 
handed  me  a  newspaper  addressed  in  your 
familiar  hand.  I  opened  it  eagerly  for  news, 
when  my  eye  rested  on  the  sad  announce 
ment  ; — your  John,  our  dear  Johnny  was  no 
more ! 

"  The  news  was  a  blow  to  myself  and  my 
wife  as  if  one  of  our  sons  had  been  struck. 
We  remembered  the  lovely  boy  who  had  so 
endeared  himself  to  us  during  his  stay  under 
our  roof:  we  felt  for  you  and  with  you. 
Sadness  sat  at  our  table  that  day,  when  we 
spoke  of  him  and  of  you.  Yet  when  I  looked 
upon  my  three  boys  and  asked  myself  how  I 

*  Nice,  France. 


210  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

would  have  felt  if  one  of  them  had  fallen  in 
so  -noble  a  cause,  I  could  not  help  thinking 
that  I  would  deem  it  an  honor  to  have  con 
tributed  a  son  to  its  triumph.  Of  such  sac 
rifices  God  makes  the  glory  of  his  cause,  and 
the  redemption  of  a  people.  But  when 
they  multiply,  when  they  come  so  near  us, 
we  cannot  help  exclaiming,  how  long  will 
that  dreadful  conflict  last?  Not  that  I 
would  have  it  stopped  on  any  account  before 
the  rebellion  is  crushed  and  slavery  with  it ; 
but  I  watch  with  an  anxious  eye  the  slow 
ness  of  the  North's  movements,  and  I  trem 
ble  lest  the  people  faint  before  the  impious 
power  of  the  rebellion  is  annihilated.  God 
be  with  you  and  your  armies  !  I  have  never 
yet  doubted  even  in  the  darkest  hour  the 
ultimate  success  of  the  right  among  you. 
Your  bloody  struggle,  so  long,  so  fearful^ 
will  prove  your  salvation,  and  the  initiation 
of  America  into  an  era  of  undreamed  after 
greatness. 

One  who  himself  has  known  more  than 
thirty    years    of   hardship,    toil,    sacrifice, 


TEE  SEE  aEANTS  MEMORIAL.          211 

danger  for  the  cause  of  Christ  in  a  foreign 
land, — and  whose  son  was  the  Sergeant's 
most  intimate  friend, — while  sympathizing  in 
"  the  great  sorrow  "  that  had  fallen  upon  the 
household  which  was  his  home  on  his  last 
visit  to  America,  gives  a  missionary's  esti 
mate  of  our  struggle  in  its  relations  to  the 
kingdom  of  God.* 

"  In  regard  to  the  dear  young  man  him 
self  we  have  no  reason  to  mourn.  He  is 
doubtless  with  Christ  which  is  far  better, 
and  he  could  not  have  offered  up  his  young 
life  in  a  more  just  or  noble  cause,  according 
to  my  judgment.  To  die  in  attempting  to 
suppress  the  most  audacious  and  wicked  re 
bellion  known  to  history  is  a  high  honor  ; 
and  whether  successful  or  not,  God  will  not 
forget  the  offering  ;  and  in  his  own  way  and 
time,  he  will  vindicate  the  memory  of  those 
who  have  thus  sacrificed  all  in  this  sacred 
cause.  If  not  to-day,  yet  it  will  not  be  long 
before  this  matter  will  be  set  right ;  and 

*  Rev.  W.  M.  Thomson,  D.  D.,  of  the  Syrian  Mission,  author  of 
<l  The  Land  and  tho  Book." 


212  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

when  the  millions  who  fall  in  the  vulgar 
scramble  after  wealth  will  have  been  forgot 
ten,  those  who  shed  their  blood  for  law,  lib 
erty,  truth  and  righteousness,  will  be  held  in 
honor  and  everlasting  remembrance. 

"  My  recollections  of  your  son  are  all  very 
pleasant ; — mild  and  amiable  and  conscien 
tious,  and  self-distrusting,  he  must  have  en 
tered  the  army  from  the  very  purest  motives ; 
and  I  honor  and  reverence  now,"  where  I 
merely  admired  and  loved  before.  But  alas  ! 
for  our  country.  It  is  just  such  instances  as 
this  that  enable  me  to  realize  the  fearful 
condition  of  things  there,  where  all  was 
peace  and  prosperity  when  I  left  only  four 
years  ago.  Tremendous  indeed  must  be  the 
pressure  when  such  youth  as  I  remember 
John  to  have  been,  are  roused  and  nerved 
to  face  the  grim  front  of  war. 

"  And  what  is  to  be  the  retribution  of 
those  gigantic  sinners  who  have  caused  this 
immeasurable  mischief!  But  I  need  not 
pursue  this  train  of  remark.  Words  are 
very  cheap.  Were  I  in  America,  I  would 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  213 

be  in  the  army,  and  act  as  well  as  pray  and 
preach.  It  is  but  little  that  any  one  man 
can  do,  but  that  little  I  should  most  willingly 
consecrate  to  the  effort  to  suppress  this  most 
monstrous  slave  rebellion." 

Our  country's  noble  and  eloquent  cham 
pion  before  Europe,  mingles  his  tears  of  sym 
pathy  with  words  of  lofty  inspiration  : 

"Au  Bivage,  Vlth  April,  1863. 

"  MY  DEAR  FKIEND  : — How  to  express  to 
you  my  deep  and  tender  sympathy !  I  have 
cast  myself  upon  my  knees,  I  have  besought 
the  Lord  to  multiply  to  you  his  aid.  He 
alone  can  speak  to  you  what  your  poor  torn 
heart  needs  to  hear. 

"  That  dear  young  man  ; — he  has  given 
his  life  so  purely  and  so  nobly  to  a  holy 
cause !  In  that  brief  career  God  has  laid 
upon  him  the  fulfillment  of  a  grand  duty  ; — 
more  than  He  often  assigns  to  our  long 
course.  And  then,  above  all,  that  Christian 
death !  Well  do  you  know  ivhere  to  seek 
him!  He  has  entered  into  the  Father's 


214  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

house,  where  the  same  grace  of  Christ  has 
prepared  a  place  for  those  who  mourn  him. 

"  And  yet,  it  is  well  to  weep — God  does 
not  condemn  our  tears.  What  a  rending ! 
I  bewail  you  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart. 
As  your  letter  expresses  it,  *  a  portion  of 
yourself  has  been  swallowed  up  in  that  dear 
tomb/  If  it  is  sweet  to  you  to  know  that 
other  hearts  are  afflicted  with  yours,  that 
hands  reach  forth  from  afar  to  clasp  yours, 
that  fervent  prayers  unite  with  yours,  oh, 
be  sure  that  this  is  so. 

"  You  have  recently  had  the  great  pleas 
ure  of  seeing  another  of  your  children  make 
a  public  profession  of  faith  in  the  Saviour. 
Oh,  that  God  would  give  us  above  all  in  our 
families  the  joy  of  feeling  that  we  are  one 
heart  and  one  single  soul  for  his  service — 
that  the  word  spoken  to  Paul  might  be  ad 
dressed  to  us  also,  '  I  have  given  thee  all 
those  who  sail  with  thee.7 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  your  affairs  take  on 
a  better  aspect.  Those  internal  dissensions 
that  we  had  apprehended  for  you,  do  not  ap- 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  215 

pear  to  come  to  much.  Maintain  your  unity. 
Bind  yourselves  around  Mr.  Lincoln. 

"  Adieu,  dear  sir  and  friend,  I  pray  our 
good  God  to  keep  himself  with  you,  to  bless 
you,  yours,  and  your  dear  country  for  which 
you  have  made  so  great  and  so  mournful  a 
sacrifice. 

Receive  especially  my  respectful  regards. 
A.  DE  GASPARIN. 


XXIX. 


Infinite  Father  opens  avenues  into 
his  heart  through  the  wounds  that  He 
inflicts  upon  our  hearts,  and  interprets  Him 
self  to  us  through  our  personal  experiences. 
Indeed  God  is  often  revealed  to  us  through 
emotion  where  mere  intellection  would  quite 
fail  to  apprehend  Him.  The  sublime  climax 
of  divine  love  and  promise  is  given  in  these 
few  words  :  "  He  spared  not  his  own  Son." 

At  God's  command  Abraham  took  his 
Isaac,  his  delight,  away  from  his  home  and 
his  mother,  to  the  mountain  in  the  wilder 
ness  ;  he  laid  him  upon  the  wood  ;  he  bound 
him  with  cords  to  the  altar  ;  he  made  ready 
the  knife  —  when  the  angel  of  the  Lord  cried 
"  Forbear,  lay  not  thine  hand  upon  the  lad." 

(216) 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  217 

He  spared  Abraham's  son,  but  he  did  not 
spare  his  own  son ! 

It  may  be  that  God  calls  you  to  Abraham's 
faith,  and  to  more  than  Abraham's  sacrifice  ; 
that  he  bids  you  lay  your  son  upon  the  altar 
of  patriotism,  the  altar  of  liberty,  the  altar 
of  missions,  the  altar  of  humanity  ;  and  when 
the  sacrifice  is  made  ready,  he  sends  no  an 
gel  to  stay  it,  he  provides  no  lamb  for  sub 
stitution  ;  he  sees  the  blow  about  to  fall,  and 
lets  it  fall ; — but  when  a  horror  of  darkness, 
like  that  which  encompassed  Abraham,  gath 
ers  about  you,  its  folds  are  rent  at  the  thick 
est  ;  through  your  own  riven  heart,  you  look 
into  the  heart  of  the  infinite  Father  ;  the 
glory  of  the  Shekinah  enwraps  the  sacrifice  ; 
and  heavenly  voices  chant  these  words  of 
love — He  that  spared  not  his  own  Son  will 
freely  give  you  all  things. 

It  is  not  for  human  hearts  to  measure  the 
love  of  God  ;  it  is  not  for  human  tongues  to 
tell  the  love  of  God  in  Christ.  We  know 
not  what  heights  of  love  they  behold  whose 
eyes  death  hath  unsealed  :  we  know  not 
19 


218  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

what  words  of  love  they  speak,  whose 
tongues  death  hath  unloosed ;  but  while 
hear t  and  tongue  remain,  we  can  know  and 
speak  no  greater  love  than  these  few  words  : 

HE  SPAKED   NOT  HIS  OWN   SON. 


XXX. 

ADDRESS 

OF  EEV.  R.  S.  STORES,  JR.,  D.  D.,  AT  THE  FUNERAL'  OF  SER- 
GEANT  JOHN  H.  THOMPSON,  IN  THE  BROADWAY  TABERNACLE 
CHURCH,  MARCH  20,  1863. 

T  AM  not  here,  Brethren  and  Friends,  to 
*•  praise  the  dead.  If  I  were  otherwise 
moved  to  do  so,  the  wishes  of  those  whose 
wishes  should  of  right  control  this  occasion, 
would  forbid  my  attempting  it.  We  know 
too  that  his  wishes,  if  once  more  his  spirit 
could  speak  to  us, — breaking  for  a  moment 
the  marble  stillness  that  seals  henceforth 
those  silent  lips — that  his  wishes,  harmoni 
ous  with  those  of  his  parents,  would  equally 
proliibit  our  words  of  praise.  They  are  not 

(219) 


220  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

needed ;  certainly  not  in  this  place,  and  in 
this  presence.  You  do  not  need  them,  his 
classmates  and  companions  of  the  school  and 
of  college,  who  have  come  hither  to  look 
for  the  last  time  on  the  face  that  has  been 
familiar  to  you,  and  to  express  by  your 
attendance  on  these  services  your  affection 
for  his  character,  and  your  sorrow  at  his 
death.  You  do  not  need  them,  members  of 
the  Regiment  with  which  he  was  connected 
when  he  first  went  forth  to  do  battle  for  his 
country,  and  which  he  only  left  when  its 
term  of  active  service  had  expired,  to  join 
the  other  in  which  he  died.  You  know 
for  yourselves  how  faithful  he  was  in  every 
duty;  how  resolute,  uncomplaining,  and 
courageous ;  how  full  of  soldierly  spirit  and 
patriotic  devotion  ;  and  your  presence  here 
to-day  attests  your  regard  for  him.  Least 
of  all  is  it  needful  that  I  speak  in  his 
praise  to  you,  my  Brethren,  the  members 
of  this  Church  in  which  he  was  trained 
in  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  of  the  Gospel 
of  Christ,  through  his  unfolding  youth ;  in 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.          221 

which  he  made  his  public  confession  of  faith 
in  the  Master,  and  consecrated  himself  to 
His  service  in  the  world.  You  know  how 
true  and  tender  he  was  ;  how  manly  and 
how  modest.  You  have  seen  and  noted 
his  daily  life,  and  have  felt  the  impression 
of  his  conscientious  and  affectionate  charac 
ter.  You  have  loved  him,  for  his  own  sake, 
and  for  the  sake  of  his  parents.  And  you 
need  no  words  in  eulogy  of  him  from  my 
lips  to-day. 

Less,  indeed,  than  at  any  other  time,  are 
such  words  needed  here  and  now,  as  we 
stand  before  his  coffin,  and  remember  that 
his  spirit  will  return  to  us  no  more.  For  it 
is  one  of  the  beautiful  offices  which  Death 
accomplishes,  to  reveal  to  us  more  distinctly 
the  excellence  of  the  friend  from  whom  we 
have  by  him  been  parted.  We  walk  with 
such  a  friend,  in  the  familiarity  of  life,  with 
out  pausing  to  consider  what  it  is  in  his 
character  which  makes  him  lovely  or  noble 
to  us.  But  when  Death  has  taken  him,  the 
memory,  the  sensibility,  at  once  become  ac- 
19* 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

tive,  representing  to  us  more  vividly  than  be 
fore  the  several  elements,  the  various  forces, 
which  were  combined  in  his  life  to  endear 
him  to  us.  Not  that  we  do  this  with  dis 
tinct  and  intentional  logical  analysis ;  but 
that  our  thoughts,  as  inspired  by  our  hearts, 
do  it  spontaneously  ;  until  every  mourner 
finds  it  true  that  even  as  the  sunshine, 
streaming  in  through  these  windows,  so 
beautiful  in  itself,  may  be  untwisted  by  man's 
art  into  the  various  primary  colors  that  are 
braided  together  to  make  its  perfect  golden 
radiance,  so  the  separate  excellences  that 
were  blended  and  combined  in  the  character 
of  a  friend  impress  us  individually,  with 
most  distinctness,  when  we  view  that  charac 
ter  through  the  prism  of  our  tears. 

No ;  it  is  not  to  praise  the  dead  that  I 
have  come  hither,  and  am  standing  above 
the  coffin  of  him  whom  I  remember  in  his 
beautiful  childhood — the  coffin  which  you, 
with  affectionate  hands,  have  heaped  with 
flowers,  and  on  which  you  have  laid  the  em 
blem  of  the  Cross.  I  am  here  only  to  sug- 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  223 

gest — as  it  seems  to  be  meet  that  some  one 
should  suggest — a  few  general  thoughts 
connected  with  the  event  by  which  we  are 
convened ;  thoughts  that  are  familiar,  yet 
that  always  are  full  of  instruction  and  en 
couragement,  and  that  hardly  can  fail  to  be 
emphasized  to  us  by  the  scene  amid  which 
we  are  assembled. 

The  primary  thought,  and  the  most  essen 
tial,  of  course,  is  that  one  which  is  always 
impressed  upon  us  anew  whenever  we  con 
front  the  presence  of  Death  :  of  the  supreme 
value  that  belongs  to  the  Gospel ;  the 
entirely  transcendent  and  incomparable 
worth  of  a  Christian  hope.  —  Amid  the 
pleasures  and  excitements  of  life,  the  young, 
especially,  may  not  feel  this.  Religion  to 
them  may  seem  a  burden,  not  a  privilege ; 
and  the  prizes  of  life,  as  they  glitter  before 
their  ardent  hope,  may  hide  from  their  eyes 
the  heavenly  splendor  of  the  pearl  of  great 
price.  But  here,  to-day,  as  in  every  such 
scene,  we  know  and  feel  that  the  one  thing 
essential  to  man's  well-being — the  one  thing* 


224  THIS  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

essential  to  the  comfort  of  those  who  bow 
in  grief  above  the  form  of  their  unburied 
dead — is  the  assurance  of  that  faith  in  the 
Master  by  which  the  grave  is  robbed  of  its 
terrors  ;  which  makes  it  luminous  with  celes 
tial  promises ;  yea,  which  enables  us  to 
look  through  its  portal,  steep  and  narrow 
as  are  the  sides,  into  the  peace  and  the  tri 
umph  of  Paradise!  Let  me  press  this 
thought  especially  upon  you,  my  dear  young 
friends,  who  are  here  as  the  companions, 
equal  in  age,  of  him  who  has  gone.  His 
pleasant  studies,  his  eager  hopes  and  earn 
est  plans  for  further  study,  to  be  accom 
plished  perhaps  abroad,  his  pleasures,  suc 
cesses,  and  schemes  of  life,  whatever  they 
were,  are  ended  now.  So  far  as  the  earthly 
life  is  concerned,  the  consummation  of  all  is 
here ;  in  this  still  form ;  this  eye,  whose  light 
is  quenched  in  darkness !  But,  oh  I  how 
precious,  beyond  compare,  to  those  who 
loved  him — how  precious  to  himself  beyond 
all  words,  beyond  all  thought — that  unob 
trusive  faith  in  Christ  he  felt  and  showed ; 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  225 

that  sweet  submission  to  all  God's  will, 
which  made  his  other  graces  grander,  and 
which  was  never  so  clearly  shown  as  in  the 
hour  of  parting  life ! 

But,  beside  this,  there  are  two  or  three 
thoughts  which  seem  specially  fitting  to  this 
occasion.  The  first  is :  of  the  infinite  and 
inexhaustible  plentitude  of  that  Divine 
power  that  can  dispense  with  even  such 
instruments  as  these,  so  costly  and  so  ad 
mirable, — with  the  cultured  minds  and  the 
consecrated  wills  that  seem  precisely  adapt 
ed  to  its  use — and  still  can  work  out,  with 
out  their  aid,  the  perfect  designs  of  God's 
wisdom  and  love. 

The  experience  here  presented  is  not  a 
new  one.  It  is  as  old  as  the  preaching  of 
Christianity  in  the  world  •  as  old,  one  might 
almost  say,  as  the  history  of  man.  Stephen 
died,  full  of  faith  and  Christian  power,  lead 
ing,  with  saintly  and  shining  face,  the  long 
procession  of  Christian  martyrs ;  looking 
up  into  Heaven,  and  seeing  the  Son  of  Man 
standing  to  welcome  him  at  the  right  hand 


226  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

of  God  ;  his  body  crushed,  life  beaten  from 
it,  beneath  the  furious  storm  of  stones,  at 
just  the  crisis  when  most  of  all  that  life  to 
man's  eyes  appeared  indispensable,  to  the 
church  which  was  so  weak,  and  the  world, 
whose  whole  hope  was  bound  up  in  that 
church.  But  God's  design  to  publish  the 
Gospel,  and  to  make  the  empires  subject  to 
his  Son,  was  not  arrested  by  the  death  of 
oven  this  eminent  servant.  Nay,  He  made 
that  death,  in  its  seeming  so  disastrous,  a 
means  of  the  progress  of  His  august  plan ; 
so  affecting  by  it  the  heart  of  a  bystander, 
who  was  consenting  to  it,  that  it  is  hardly 
too  much  to  say,  with  those  of  old,  that,  "  if 
Stephen  had  not  prayed,  the  church  had  not 
possessed  its  Paul/'  and  that  we  still  catch 
the  echoes  of  his  words  whose  face  appeared 
as  the  face  of  an  angel,  through  the  argu 
ment  and  imagery  and  the  mighty  appeals 
of  the  Pauline  Epistles. 

So  in  every  great  movement  which  Christ 
endom  has  since  seen.  So  in  our  own  Eev- 
olutionary  struggle.  Nathan  Hale  dies  :  the 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  227 

accomplished  student,  the  stimulating  teach 
er,  the  affectionate,  earnest,  exemplary 
Christian,  the  soldier  whose  career  was  full 
of  promise :  he  dies  ignoniiniously,  in  this 
city  of  New  York,  surrendering  his  life  in 
the  cause  of  his  country,  and  only  regretting 
in  the  hour  of  his  death  that  he  has  but  one 
life  to  devote  to  that  country.  But  the 
Cause  is  not  thwarted ;  it  is  not  even  checked. 
Warren  dies :  the  pure  patriot,  the  far- 
sighted  statesman,  the  orator  able  to  elec 
trify  and  persuade  men,  the  soldier  undaunt 
ed  by  any  danger,  the  man  without  fear  and 
without  reproach  :  and  it  seems  for  the  time 
as  if  the  bullet  that  has  blasted  his  life,  and 
sealed  forever  his  eloquent  lips,  has  fatally 
shattered  the  hopes  of  the  country,  and 
stricken  the  movement  represented  by  him 
with  remediless  disaster.  But  still  the  great 
Cause  marches  on ;  and  the  struggle  for 
National  Freedom  and  Union,  so  early  bap 
tized  with  the  blood  of  its  best  and  noblest 
champions,  is  brought  at  last  to  a  triumph 
ant  issue,  .  ; 


228  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

And  so  to-day.  This  scene  is  one  of  how 
many  like  scenes,  occurring  throughout  our 
loyal  land !  The  young,  the  brave,  the 
charming  and  the  cherished,  bright  minds, 
swift  wills,  and  gallant  hearts  :  oh,  in  how 
many  scattered  church-yards,  within  the  year, 
have  such  been  laid  for  the  last  sleep !  How 
many  hearts  have  ached  and  bled,  like  these 
before  me,  while  over  the  coffins  of  those 
they  loved  they  have  repeated  the  sad 
words :  "  Died  in  the  field  \"  "  Died  in  the 
camp  !"  "  Died  at  the  war !"  Over  how  many 
churches  and  villages  have  tidings  of  these 
deaths  spread  a  thick  gloom !  But  shall  we 
therefore  be  despondent,  because  the  young 
are  dying  first?  because  the  strong,  who 
should  have  borne  out  others  to  their  burial, 
are  carried  themselves  in  such  vast  numbers, 
blanched  by  the  fever  or  drenched  in  blood, 
to  be  laid  down,  before  their  time,  for  the 
long  rest  ?  No  :  rather  let  us  the  more  adore 
that  Power  Unsearchable  which  never  is  de 
pendent  for  its  success  on  human  instru 
ments  ;  which  is  not  limited  by  our  econo- 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  229 

mies  ;  which  makes  the  absolute  final  suc 
cess  consistent  with  all  this  lavish  expendi 
ture  of  even  the  costliest,  choicest  means ; 
and  which  works  on  its  wondrous  way,  to 
the  perfect  realization  of  God's  designs,  in 
spite  of  all  combined  resistance  ;  unharmed 
by  those  who  would  arrest,  unhindered  by 
any  defect  or  failure  of  force  or  life  in  those 
who  would  assist  it ! 

I  know  hardly  another  point  from  which  I 
get  so  grand  a  view  of  that  eternal  and 
sovereign  might  which  is  our  God's — of  that 
transcendent  power  which,  as  joined  with 
justice  and  an  absolute  goodness,  is  the  safe 
guard  of  the  universe,  the  object  of  constant 
angelic  praise,  and  the  prime  condition  of  all 
our  hopes — as  comes  to  me  here !  Not  when 
I  think  of  the  forces  and  laws  that  gird 
and  guide  this  whirling  earth,  of  the  moun 
tains  God  has  reared,  or  the  oceans  whose 
beds  His  hands  have  scooped,  or  of  the 
whole  material  universe — not  standing  in 
space  on  pillars  of  adamant,  but  suspended 
forever  on  the  word  of  His  power!  but 
20 


230  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

when  I  reflect  how  untroubled  are  His  plans 
by  what  to  us  looks  most  disastrous !  how 
He  does  not  care  to  protect  by  His  provi 
dence  what  we  count  most  important  to  His 
purpose !  and  how  with  absolute  steadiness 
of  accomplishment  His  plans  move  on,  though 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  those  who  would 
perform  them  are  fainting  by  the  way  !  How 
vast  the  resources,  which  even  such  a  loss 
and  waste  as  here  appears,  in  no  wise  lessens ! 
How  unspeakable  the  energy  which  can  dis 
pense  with  these  noble  auxiliaries,  and  be  no 
whit  less  certain  of  the  result ! 

And  another  thought  as  natural  to  the 
occasion,  and  which  seems  irresistibly  im 
pressed  upon  my  heart  as  I  stand  here  to 
day,  is  that  of  the  greatness  and  glory  of  the 
Future,  for  this  our  Nation,  which  is  to  be 
wrought  out  for  it  at  last  through  all  this  sac 
rifice,  suffering,  death  ! 

I  know  there  are  other  points,  not  a  few, 
from  which  the  same  great  thought  is  sug 
gested.  As  we  look  back  to  the  long,  slow 
series  of  centuries  through  which  this  con- 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.          231 

tinent  remained  hidden  so  perfectly  from  the 
eyes  of  the  world  ;  as  we  see  how  promptly 
it  was  brought  to  the  light  when  the  era  of 
advancing  Reformation  had  been  reached, 
and  forces  were  developed  and  at  work  within 
Christendom,  adapted,  as  transferred  here, 
to  make  it  a  kingdom  of  God  and  of  his 
Son  ;  as  we  notice  what  care  and  pains  God 
took  to  people  it  from  the  start  with  repre 
sentatives  of  the  best  religious  culture  the 
world  had  reached ;  and  how  he  has  trained, 
and  disciplined,  and  enriched  this  people 
ever  since,  and  has  made  of  the  early  scat 
tered  colonies  a  great  Christian  Nation, 
whose  unity  may  be  threatened  but  cannot 
be  broken,  and  whose  influence  must  extend 
more  widely,  through  commerce  and  litera 
ture,  laws  and  arts,  the  missions  of  the  Cross 
and  the  example  of  Liberty,  with  every  year ; 
nay,  as  we  look  upon  the  country  itself, 
so  apt  for  tillage,  so  wealthy  with  metal 
lic  and  mineral  treasures,  laced  and  bound 
inextricably  together  by  such  ranges  of 
mountains  and  such  vast  rivers,  and  so  poised 


232  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

and  set  on  the  crest  of  the  earth  that  its 
influence  strikes  almost  of  necessity  across 
both  oceans,  around  the  world  ; — it  is  im 
possible  not  to  feel  that  He  who  has  pur 
posed  and  has  conducted  thus  far  this 
wonderful  history,  and  has  fashioned  and 
framed  this  unequaled  arena  for  a  grand 
Christian  Nation,  intends  to  fulfill  His  own 
prophecies  concerning  it !  intends  to  make 
it  a  Nation  to  His  praise  ;  and  to  give  it  at 
home  such  a  Christian  development,  and  to 
give  it  abroad  such  a  reach  and  sweep  of 
Christian  influence,  as  no  other  nation,  nor 
this  itself,  has  yet  approached  ;  as  almost 
none  has  ever  conceived  ! — Undoubtedly,  my 
Brethren,  this  is  to  be.  It  is  ours  to  believe 
it ;  and  on  the  sure  and  steadfast  pillars  of 
this  great  hope,  of  this v  certain  expectation, 
to  take  hold  with  strong  faith  whensoever 
we  are  timid  concerning  our  Nation,  that 
there  may  come  new  strength  to  our  souls, 
a  new  ardor  and  energy  to  all  our  exertions. 
The  great  visions  of  the  Fathers  are  here  to 
be  fulfilled.  The  thunderous  discords  now 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  233 

shattering  the  air,  are  to  be  hushed  by-and- 
by  ;  giving  place  to  "  hallelujahs  and  harping 
symphonies."  And  an  empire  is  at  last  to  be 
here,  one,  free,  Christian,  mighty,  for  the  fur 
therance  of  the  reign  of  Messiah  in  the  world. 
But  nowhere,  as  I  said,  does  this  great 
thought  come  to  me  so  vividly,  nowhere  else 
is  the  certainty  of  this  sublime  Future  so 
impressed  upon  my  heart,  as  when  I  stand 
in  a  scene  like  this,  and  remember  that  this 
is  but  one  of  multitudes,  occurring  simulta 
neously,  occurring  continuously,  in  these 
late  months,  in  city  and  village,  from  the 
Eastern  slopes  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific ! 
This  discipline  of  our  suffering — how  sud 
denly  it  has  come  !  How  stern  it  is  ;  and 
how  wide-reaching !  Ah,  think  how  many 
are  being  trained  by  it !  Not  the  wounded 
or  sickening  soldier  alone ;  not  he  only 
who  lies  in  his  stiffening  garments  upon  the 
torn  arid  trampled  battle-ground,  in  the 
furrowed  ridges  which  the  cannon  have 
ploughed,  or  lie  who  lies  down,  as  did  our 
friend,  in  the  lonely  tent  afar  from  home, 
20* 


234  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

where  no  domestic  care  watches  over  him, 
and  no  dear  face  of  parent  or  friend  is  near 
to  cheer  ;  but  they,  as  well,  who  from  farm 
house  or  mansion  look  out  for  his  coming 
who  shall  no  more  return  to  them  :  they 
who  watch  with  faint  hearts  for  the  letter 
or  the  message  that  does  not  reach  them  till 
too  late  :  fathers,  mothers,  sisters,  brothers, 
w^hose  hearts  are  shaken  by  every  report  of 
the  distant  artillery  that  flies  across  the 
reverberating  wires,  whose  souls  are  pierced 
with  shafts  of  pain  by  every  bullet  that 
strikes  the  ranks  in  which  their  dear  ones 
are  arrayed  : — all  these  are  the  sufferers 
whom  this  discipline  touches  !  Shall  there 
not  be  an  outcome,  precious  and  grand,  to 
the  Nation  which  God  has  so  planted  and 
watched,  from  this  vast  pain  ?  Shall  not  the 
people  that  was  growing  too  fierce,  ambi 
tious,  and  sensual,  through  its  constant  suc 
cesses,  be  taught  and  trained  for  a  far 
nobler  errand  by  this  sharp  sorrow  that 
searches  now,  with  almost  omnipresent  probe, 
its  inmost  heart  ? 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.  235 

Certainly,  my  Brethren,  certainly,  it  shall 
be !  Even  according  to  our  human  econo 
mies,  by  the  price  that  is  paid  may  be  usu 
ally  measured  the  good  that  is  gained.  By 
the  labor  of  the  hands,  and  the  active  exer 
tion  of  brain  and  will,  we  buy  outward 
wealth  ;  or  even,  it  may  be,  mental  accom 
plishments.  By  love,  alone,  do  we  gain 
love,  that  grander  good.  Through  nothing 
less  than  long  endurance  do  we  achieve  vic 
torious  character.  By  suffering,  only,  are  we 
changed,  through  God's  grace,  into  the  like 
ness  of  Him,  our  Lord,  who,  innocent  as  He 
was,  was  the  chief est  of  sufferers ;  that  having 
been  partakers  of  His  patience  on  earth,  we 
may  be  partakers  of  His  triumph  on  high. 
The  very  Church  of  Christ  is  purchased, 
with  His  own  blood.  And  so  I  know  that 
God  has  great  and  precious  things  reserved 
in  His  purpose  for  us  as  a  people,  to  be 
wrought  out  in  us,  and  then  wrought  out  for 
us,  through  this  immense  but  remedial  pain  ! 
If  it  were  only  material  prosperity  that  He 
had  reserved  for  us — of  mountains  tunneled 


236  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

and  valleys  bridged,  of  mines  explored, 
and  great  energies  subjugated,  of  rivers 
cclioing  to  the  tramp  of  the  wheel,  and  cit 
ies  shining  on  the  marge  of  the  lakes,  and 
villages  strung  like  glittering  pearls  on  the 
threads  of  the  railways,  of  homes  being 
multiplied,  and  universities  rising,  and  an 
affluent  commerce,  encompassing  the  globe, 
—then  all  this  might  be  accomplished,  with 
.  His  aid,  through  foresight  and  fortitude,  an 
inventive,  intrepid,  and  masterful  sagacity  ; 
and  to  these  alone  He  would  then  train  us. 
But  when  I  think  of  all  these  forms, 
shrouded  in  pale  or  bloody  death — of  all 
these  hearts  wrung  with  an  anguish  unfelt 
before,  in  our  late  history, — of  all  those 
happy  Christian  homes,  wherein  the  very 
tenderness  of  love  is  now  the  occasion  of 
fear  and  pain  that  pass  all  words — I  know 
that  it  is  not  such  a  prosperity,  alone,  that 
awaits  us !  An  argument  comes  for  our  ul 
timate  unity,  and  Christian  supremacy,  from 
the  very  severity  of  this  present  sorrow. 
It  must  be  that  we  are  to  buy  redemption 


THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL.          23  7 

from  long  iniquities,  by  these  fierce  pangs, 
this  bloody  sweat.  And  never  does  the  vast 
and  magnificent  temple  of  American  Liberty, 
as  it  is  to  be  in  the  centuries  to  come,  arise 
before  me  in  such  an  august  and  radiant 
beauty,  so  lovely,  so  majestic,  so  capacious, 
so  enduring,  as  when  I  remember  that  its 
great  columns  are  now  being  planted,  and 
its  ascending  pillars  set,  in  all  these  thou 
sands  of  Christian  graves ! 

The  last  thought  I  have  to  suggest  is  this : 
What  a  light  is  cast  by  the  death  of  one 
like  him  before  us,  in  the  early  prime  and 
vigor  of  life,  with  every  power  just  spring 
ing  upward  to  its  maturity — what  a  light  is 
cast  on  the  offices  of  Heaven;  on  the  na 
ture  of  the  Life  that  shall  there  open  to  us  ; 
as  full  of  great  works,  giving  scope  illimit 
able  to  each  bright  faculty,  to  each  high 
power,  that  stirs  within  us! — If  only  the 
infant,  the  young  child,  died,  we  should 
think  of  Heaven  as  a  home  of  kindness,  a 
sphere  of  culture,  a  nursery  only  for  the  in 
fantile  mind.  If  only  the  aged  were  to  die 


238  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

— falling  like  shocks  of  corn  fully  ripe  in 
their  season,  rounding  with  death  a  life  long 
protracted,  and  the  energy  of  whose  powers 
^as  beginning  to  fail — we  should  then  think 
of  Heaven-  only  as  a  scene  of  reward  and 
repose  ;  of  rest  after  toil ;  of  long  tran 
quillity  after  long  service.  But  when  the 
young  and  strong  are  taken,  they  whose 
faculties  seemed  to  prophesy  large  develop 
ment,  and  whose  elastic  and  untired  spirit 
was  even  then,  with  the  keenest  vitality,  im 
pelling  them  forward  to  exertion  and  ac 
tivity — we  know  that  Heaven  is  something 
other  than  either  a  shelter  and  school  for 
babes,  or  a  Home  of  quiet  repose  for  the 
aged.  Our  thoughts  run  on  instinctively 
to  its  scenes,  and  anticipate  amid  them  op 
portunities  and  offices  such  as  shall  meet 
the  utmost  demands  of  the  young  and 
fresh  spirit,  inspired  with  desires  for  knowl 
edge  and  wisdom,  capable  of  and  eager 
for  a  various,  wide-ranging,  and  beneficent 
use  of  the  force  God  has  given  it.  And 
so  there  come  to  us  new  and  more  just 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.          239 

conceptions,  I  think,  of  the  Life  Everlast 
ing. 

It  is  not  song,  only,  that  shall  occupy  us 
there ;  but  a  .vast  yet  unfatiguing  service, 
for  God  and  for  the  Universe ;  a  service 
transformed  into  a  nobler  than  any  audible 
praise  by  the  spirit  of  Love  that  pervades 
and  transfigures  it!  No  inlet  to  pleasure, 
no  capacity  for  it,  but  shall  be  more  than 
satisfied  there !  No  pure  sensibility,  no  deli 
cate  taste,  no  thirst  for  affection,  no  energy 
of  will,  no  finest  or  lordliest  power  of  the  soul, 
but  shall  find  there  its  most  perfect  exhibi 
tion,  its  most  exuberant  joy  and  use !  And 
though  we  cannot  prefigure  precisely  the 
work  to  be  done  there,  or  the  embassies  of 
love  on  which  they  shall  forever  go  forth 
who  are  lifted  from  the  earth  to  those 
sublime  heights,  we  know,  as  we  stand  be 
side  a  cofiin  like  this,  and  think  of  him  who 
was  with  us  so  lately,  and  who  henceforth 
is  with  the  Master,  that  not  vacant  or  bar 
ren  is  that  Immortality  which  to  him  hath 
been  opened ;  that  full,  on  the  other  hand, 


240  THE  SERGEANT'S  MEMORIAL. 

is  it  forever  of  vivacity  and  variety,  of  stim 
ulation  and  success,  of  sympathy  and  ac 
tivity,  of  usefulness  and  reward !  The 
stream  has  passed  beyond  t}ie  point  where 
our  eyes  follow  it ;  but  we  know,  as  cer 
tainly  as  we  know  that  God  lives,  that  it 
flows  on  still,  with  only  a  swifter  and 
mightier  current.  The  star  has  faded  from 
our  sight ;  but  only  because  its  lustre  is 
completed  in  the  perfect  effulgence  of  the 
Heavenly  Day ! 

Let  me  congratulate  you  then,  my  Friends, 
the  parents  of  him  who  sleeps  before  us, 
that  he  has  been  counted  worthy  by  Christ 
to  arise  to  all  this,  which  our  thoughts  can 
not  compass  ;  of  which  the  very  prophetic 
vision  can  tell  our  darkened  minds  so  little ! 
We  are  not  here  to  offer  comfort,  alone ; 
although  of  that  how  many  are  the  sources! 
But  we  are  here  rather  to  recognize  with 
you,  with  joy  of  heart,  God's  tokens  of  love 
which  have  come  to  you  with  this  sorrow  ; 
in  even  its  circumstances,  as  well  as  in  itself. 
We  thank  Him,  with  you,  that  the  voice  of 


THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL.  241 

Christian  adoration  and  praise  was  heard 
in  the  tent  where  your  son  passed  on,  alone 
but  unalarmed,  through  the  shadow  of  Death. 
We  thank  God,  with  you,  that  he  was  per 
mitted  to  send  to  you,  and  you  to  receive, 
his  last  messages  of  remembrance  and  of 
filial  affection ;  and  that  you  have  been 
permitted  to  bring  him,  unmarred  of  decay, 
in  the  still  and  solemn  beauty  of  death,  to 
this  familiar  house  and  altar,  and  with  these 
appropriate  funeral  rites  to  close  the  coffin 
above  the  dear  dust!  But  more  than  for 
all  things  else,  we  thank  God,  and  with  you 
offer  to  Him  our  praise,  that  He  has  opened 
to  this  your  son  those  gates  of  peace  through 
which  have  passed  Apostles'  feet,  the  Mar 
tyrs',  and  the  Saints',  and  Christ  the  Lord's ! 
that  he,  henceforth,  from  all  trial  and  pain  is 
free  forever !  Not  in  the  European  schools 
shall  he  pursue  his  further  studies,  but  in 
that  "better  country,  even  an  heavenly," 
where  Paul  shall  teach,  and  Gabriel  shall 
hear,  the  wonders  of  God's  love  in  man's 
Eedemption.  He  would  have  been  promoted, 
21 


242  THE  SERGEANTS  MEMORIAL. 

if  lie  had  lived,  to  higher  rank  in  the  Na 
tional  service.  But  Christ  hath  called  him — 
He  who  in  righteousness  doth  judge  and 
make  war,  upon  whose  head  are  many 
crowns,  and  who  hath  on  His  vesture  and 
on  His  thigh  a  name  written,  King  of  Kings, 
and  Lord  of  Lords — He  hath  called  him  to 
nobler  office,  in  a  how  far  sublimer  warfare ! 
Look  up,  then,  and  not  down  ;  to  Paradise 
on  high,  and  not  to  the  grave  ;  and  know 
that  every  day  and  hour,  if  we  are  faithful, 
but  brings  us  nearer  to  that  same  wonder, 
that  ecstasy  and  mystery,  of  vision  and  of 
victory,  which  he  hath  reached !  Ah  !  when 
we  shall  at  last  attain  it,  and  join  again-  the 
souls,  so  many  and  so  beloved,  who  have 
gone  on  to  it  before  us,  what  words  or  harps 
shall  be  sufficient  to  speak  to  God  or  tell  to 
Saints  our  perfect  praise ! 


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